Does anyone out there really think this is going to work:

South Korea is empowering couples to have more children by giving them discounts on electricity bills. 

Next week, the government will cut rates for families that have three or more children, the energy ministry said.

"People worry about paying higher electricity bills as their family gets bigger. So, to free them of those worries and have more babies, we are giving discounts," Jang Seok-gu, an energy ministry official, said.

A typical family of five would see their monthly electricity bill fall by about 40,000 won (22 pounds), according to an elaborate formula worked out by the ministry.

40,000 won is roughly $40 bucks a month families would be saving under this latest proposal.  If you multiply that by twelve that comes out to $480 bucks a year.  After reading this I decided to give my brother in law in Anyang a call.  He has one son in middle school and another one in grade school.  I asked him if the government’s latest great idea has inspired him to crank out another kid.  He told me that if the government really wanted to raise the birth rate they would do something about the outrageous education costs.  He said that between paying for school, hagwons, piano classes, taekwondo lessons, etc. for his kids, he is paying roughly about $1,800 month to ensure they get a quality education.  He cannot afford another kid even if he wanted one and saving $40 bucks a month isn’t going to convince him otherwise. 

So obviously this latest great idea isn’t going to do any good.  If the government really wants to improve the birth rate they need to take on the real problem and that is the education system.  Either the system needs to be reformed or the government needs to provide families who have three kids or more with economic assistance to pay for the education costs.  I guarantee the government will improve the birth rate significantly if they agree to pay in full the education costs for the third baby of any family.  This would cost a lot of money, but I’m willing to bet it would be money better spent than sending over one billion dollars to North Korea next year. 

Instead of spending money to better educate their own citizens and improve the sagging birthrate, the government would rather send over a billion dollars every year to North Korea to feed their soldiers, and bolster both their ballistic missiles and nuclear programs.  With a government like this, who would want to have kids.