September 29, 2005

Planning to be homeless

The only way Japan's birthrate is going up is if the government(local and national) really buck up and provide some strong financial incentives. The catch is, they cannot afford to provide the kinds of incentives they really need to. Did you know that in Japan people have to pay for the delivery of their babies? The typical cost would be between 300,000 yen and 600,000 yen. If there are complications the price can easily double. Congratuations new Mom and Dad, you owe us 10 grand! The government really needs all the money that parents fork over, ward tax, national tax, all kinds of school fees, puchases on all the stuff kids need. You can't really lower tax to the very people who you are trying to get your tax revenue from in the first place without someplace to make up the difference. With a 10% consumption tax looming just a couple of years off, I expect Japan's birth rate will decline even more.

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