I just want to thank Othello for this...

'Hyperbole aside, it is equally possible that the offspring of the post breeder-handout decades are going to graduate from the University of Crime. Or else take cues from their own parents and grow up to be yuppies with a smug sense of entitlement and not pay tax and demand handouts so that they can continue to live like the DINKs they once were leaving the childless once again to pick up the tab and to work back late at night. '

If the United States would quit laying out billions of dollars for idiotic research on such things like:
How bears that mate in Yellowstone National Park, in the latter part of July make better mother bears, than those who mate in another park in the latter part of August.
How snakes in suits,only shed their skin every other decade.
or...How we can make 12 happy chickens produce more eggs then 12 happy turkeys, there may not be a $700 billion deficit! Think?

The fairest solution is for parents to consider their finances before having children and only those who can afford them to actually breed.

The consequences of bribing people with baby bonuses, paid leave and any other inducement is to encourage all the irresponsible, unthinking wallies and dollies to copulate profusely and breed like rabbits.

The consequence of which is

Pollution of the gene pool.

Just because something's hard doesn't mean its not worthwhile or pleasant. Similarly, just because something is personally rewarding -as is an interesting, challenging and difficult job - doesn't mean that you should do it for free. Many jobs that are highly paid are both incredibly challenging and very personally rewarding.

Parenting is not only a private good - children live in society and contribute to it. I pressume you Othello - a former child - are making some kind of contribution beyond your comments here. One day somebody's child might have the good fortune to serve your needs as an elderly person in a hospital or nursing home.

People are not bribed to bond with their children - they are simply more free to bond with their children if they are less economically stressed.

You complain about the quality of parenting. There's heaps of research on this and the socio-economic relationship between behavioural problems and parental challenges. If we have a society which pushes more parents into poverty then we will create a society in which there are more behavioural problems.

If tabloid media is your only source of evidence you might think that crime is increasing but this is not the case. There's plenty of straightforward, bean counting evidence on this. The richer we get as a society - the less the rate of crime.

I would be surprised if you compensate me at all Othello. I'm in the fortunate position of being financially rewarded to such an extent that I am one of those people who, defined in George Megologenis' article, is in the highest range of tax contributors in the country.

The workers who ought to have access to government funded maternity leave are those who don't already have privately funded maternity leave. Workers on high incomes are typically already highly supported by their workplaces and need no government help. Its the non-well off that a just society is concerned for Othello.

This is wrong, the media go on about government paying for maternity leave when in actual fact it's the tax payers. Large companies should be paying for maternity leave then supply a creche, they make the profits and it wouldn't take much for them to make it up.What ever happened to the family unit, you plan your family and mum stays home until children are old enough for her to return to work. Is this the reason why kids are running off the tracks, they aren't something that is part-time or when it's convienent.

Lets go back to 1958, we could only borrow so much from the bank and built our house accordingly to our means, no carpets on floors, very little furniture, then the children arrived by 1962, still the same house,we survived on one wage for many years, the children had cloth nappies, not the disposable ones, it is about time this current generation got their act together, if you cannot stay at home on one wage then for goodness sake don't have children, don't expect taxpayers to pay your mortgage off or you LCD television while you lol around the house hoping to go back to work in twelve months to buy the next four wheel drive or the holiday house, my advice, don't have children if you want everything else.