Russia to boost child benefits.

[Colt45]

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061231/58228696.html

Putin is boosting the benefits for children in russia to help stem the population loss.

Seems like a good idea to me.

 

[raz3000]

What he should do instead is combat alcohol abuse. That is responsible for a huge number of deaths among the young.

 

[Shortass]

Originally posted by: raz3000
What he should do instead is combat alcohol abuse. That is responsible for a huge number of deaths among the young.

So instead of effectively assisting families economically and working to improve mortality rates (affecting every birth in the country) they should target a specific cause and attack that? Right...

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: Shortass

Originally posted by: raz3000
What he should do instead is combat alcohol abuse. That is responsible for a huge number of deaths among the young.

So instead of effectively assisting families economically and working to improve mortality rates (affecting every birth in the country) they should target a specific cause and attack that? Right...

Well, Putin should do both things, battling alcoholism as well as improving family aid (which, I assume, is low, like the retirement pay). But just throwing money at your population without caring about other factors and hoping that it will increase could result in very weak effects (and the aid recipient might invest the money in the next bottle of vodka instead of his child).

Here's some information about how rampant alcoholism is in Russia: The male life expectancy is 13 years lower than the female (source), and a double-digit percentage of the population has an alcohol addiction source).

Family aid won't change the mortality rate at all, you're thinking of the fertility rate. But the percentage of early deaths, caused by alcohol abuse, will rest the same. I think that in all probability the same proportion of Russian kids will grow up under mediocre or bad social circumstances now.

 

[beyoku]

germany is doing a similar thing. I read that they are paying up to 2/3 of a persons yearly pay.