The government has finalized detailed plans for dealing with the low birth rate, to be implemented starting in 2009. People are calling it the "two-two plan," meaning "every couple has two children." Korea has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and soon is expected to have a problematic reduction in its population as a result. While late in coming, it is significant that the government sees the birth rate as something that should be worried about at the state level, and that it has made plans to do something about it. Support for raising children will be extended as far as the middle class, and there will be multifaceted measures that include medical, housing, and tax benefits for families with multiple children and better employment conditions for working women. It looks like the right kind of understanding of the problem, since it seeks to improve the whole array of factors in society instead of staying with simple programs like giving people "congratulatory money" when they give birth to a child.
It is disappointing, however, that it remains unclear how the plans are going to be paid for. Of the government's total budget of W14.5 trillion, W4.6 trillion has still not been put together, W9.9 trillion of it already having gone to mid-term financial plans. They say that expenditures can be readjusted or that the money can be raised with revenue from the "comprehensive real estate tax" or money from the recently raised cigarette tax, but taking financial resources from elsewhere is exactly how you take a rock out from below to support a higher one in the same pile. There is a real risk of the policy losing a lot of its effectiveness if each of the measures is reduced.
The advanced nations of the world started pouring massive budgets on the problem of fighting "the low birth rate disaster" way back in the 70's and 80's. That speaks of how difficult it is to turn back the trend. Korea's budget for fighting the low birth rate is 0.08 percent of the GDP, outrageously low compared to countries with higher birth rates than ours such as France (3%) and Japan (0.47%). If setting aside a separate tax category would be too great a burden then we should actively consider something like maintaining and appropriating the transportation tax. If the basic outlines of the policies that regional governments are competing to produce gain the proper footing that, too, will increase the effectiveness of budget expenditures.
The Hankyoreh, 1 November 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Fighting Low Birth Rate Requires Ample Budget |
