Peat bogs and climate change

[Flyfisher]

The child poverty issue is certainly a difficult one to address, but I'm uneasy about the general wisdom of using the tax and benefits system to, effectively, encourage larger families. It just seems counter-productive to be trying to reduce our environmental 'footprint' while simultaneously 'rewarding' larger families.

 

[NT]

You may well be right, but it seems a rum old do, to me, to encourage people to reduce their energy consumption and other general 'environmental footprints' on the one hand while not trying to encourage them to reduce their family sizes on the other.

Paring away unnecessary waste improves wealth in real terms, fuelling better standards of living, more research and so on. Basic economic sense. Unfortunately people are very wasteful today on the whole.

I really can't see a downside to encouraging a reduction in population growth.

I cant see a way to do it, . . .

is that a reason not to try though?

Well, you have to have a way to try first. Only then is trying possible.


NT

 

[Penners]

The child poverty issue is certainly a difficult one to address, but I'm uneasy about the general wisdom of using the tax and benefits system to, effectively, encourage larger families. It just seems counter-productive to be trying to reduce our environmental 'footprint' while simultaneously 'rewarding' larger families.

It's certainly true that the tax system is weighted in favour of childbirth. But isn't it the case that the birth rate in the UK nowadays is actually below "replacement" level?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=951

 

[Flyfisher]

Interesting website. The population page also states:
In every year since 1901, with the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths in the UK and the population has grown due to natural change. Until the mid-1990s, this natural increase was the main driver of population growth. Since the late 1990s, although there has still been natural increase, net international migration into the UK from abroad has been an increasingly important factor in population change.

Still, if the UK fertility rates became reflected worldwide then perhaps we have a chance.