Recommended Policies to Achieve a Sustainable Society Essay

Italy has been faced with fact that they are the second country with the lowest birth rate next to Spain. There are multiple recommendations that may be done in order to keep Italy up and running. One recommendation would be Italy may want to look at why France and Ireland have a high rate of child birth to help keep them up and running in the game of population. Other countries like France and Ireland give their people benefits for having children. Italy may want to take a look into bribing their people into having children. Maybe Italy should offer funding for health care, child care, and also offering higher incentives to families with more than one child. Italy’s incentive rate right now for a woman giving birth to a second child is only 1000 Euros. Italy should offer their people these benefits in order to help Italy’s low birth rate, here are the reasons why. Italy is the second country that has the lowest birth rate in the nation, with only one child per female. One might recommend that Italy might want to look into France and Ireland because they have the second highest birth rate in Europe. If Italy looks into France they might find out in that country they actually pay families for having children (Dillinaco, 2004-2008). In French families are entitled to up to three years paid maternity leave with a guarantee that mom’s job will be there for her when she returns. If Italy does that maybe the woman there wouldn’t be so scared on having children. Their burden of having to find a new job after giving birth or if their job will still be there will be lifted off their shoulders. A new law provides greater maternity leave benefits, tax credits and other incentives for families who have a third child. During a year-long leave after the birth of the third child, mothers will receive $960.00 a month from the government, twice th e allowance for the second child. France shows that they take care of the moms even after they give birth by paying them for three years to be with their children (Conroy, 2011). France is a great place to learn from when trying to raise the low birth rate. On top of giving their people money for having children they also help them cover some of their childcare costs so the country can establish a good birth rate in order to keep their population going. France was smart and know that they couldn’t just pay women and that will be enough for them. France knows that the women will need help with childcare also. So, the government decided to covers some child-care costs of toddlers up to 3 years old and offers free child-care centers from age 3 to kindergarten, in addition to tax breaks and discounts on transportation, cultural events and shopping. Their plan worked so well that the municipal day-care center ran out of space because of a local baby boom. In fact, they actually gave families an extra $100.00 per kid if the parents took care for their own child (Sensing, 2006). France really knows how to convince their people into having babies. Paying mothers maternity leave and making sure their job is still there when they return is a great way to encourage women to have children. Not only will the mothers get paid maternity leave, it is paid maternity leave for three years. France will also help the mothers pay for childcare if the mother decides to return back to work before the three years is up. After the child makes three years old and the mother goes back to work the child care is then free from ages three to kindergarten. On top of free childcare France also pays their people $960.00 a month as long as they have three or more children, which is twice as much as two children. If Italy took care of the mothers like France does, they just might have a higher birth rate. Conroy, S. (2011, February 11). Bonuses for having babies in france. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/eveningnews/main2243958.shtml Dillinaco, D. (2004-2008). Low birth rates in italy. Retrieved from http://mommiesonline.net/health/low-birth-rates.php Sensing , D. (2006, October 20). Paying women to have children. Retrieved from http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/paying_women_to_have_children.html