By Mr. Right, Daily Caller News Foundation | July 02, 2025
This post is adapted from Mr. Right’s weekly newsletter, which tackles modern manhood for normal guys in a not-normal world. If you have not already subscribed, please consider doing so here.
President Trump has floated the idea of paying new moms $5,000 after giving birth, in an attempt to spark a baby boom. Once again, we are in a familiar place: trying to figure out how to get people to have kids again.
The policy consternation about this issue has been rampant for years. There are all kinds of theories for why our birthrates have cratered in the western world: it’s too expensive, both parents have to work nowadays to make ends meet, women are pursuing careers instead of motherhood, young men aren’t able to secure dates anymore to get married, etc.
There are a number of proposed solutions too, from cash payouts like the Trump idea, to free daycare, government-mandated parental leave, tax breaks for parents, and more.
The problem is, many of these policies have been tried. A number of countries have many of these benefits and more. Hungary, particularly, is often held up as the paragon of pro-family policy.
And it doesn’t work. In all of the places these policies exist, they have produced little to no discernable increase in birthrate.
And that’s because, I believe, the real reason people aren’t having kids isn’t because they can’t afford it – it’s because they simply don’t want to.
This is obvious by the fact that if you look at any chart plotting income versus birth rate it is the richest among us, not the poorest, that have the least kids. This is true on a society-wide scale, too: poor African and Latin American countries have no problems with birthrates. It’s the rich western countries that do.
A poll from Harvard measuring youth attitudes found that less than half of young Americans deem having kids to be an important life goal. The Zoomers placed more of a priority on financial success and getting married than having kids. (Ironic, when the primary purpose of dating someone and getting married is to have kids).
This brings us to the ultimate conclusion, which is a tough pill to swallow: our reproduction crisis is a cultural problem, not a policy one. There is no government bill that can be signed, or executive order to institute, that can solve this problem. It can only be addressed by making cultural changes that make family, kids and building your bloodline cornerstones of success again. The evidence is overwhelming. People won’t have kids if it’s not cool.
Right is a masculinity consultant at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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