Chilean President Pushes for More Children

President Sebastián Piñera of Chile used the occasion of the Day of the Child in Chile (8 August), to suggest that the country needed to return to the birth rates of the 1990s (when the TFR was about 2.5, compared to today's below-replacement level). He is quoted as saying that "children bring happiness, hope, optimism, and color, which are very necessary in the Chile of today." He chose not to emphasize that a higher birth rate could mean more people to pay the pensions of the aging Chileans. Ironically, he did choose to comment on the fact that one fourth of Chilean children live in conditions of poverty, and that three out of four young people have been victims of violence in their own home. It is difficult to imagine how having more children will fix either of those problems.