Putin offers Russian moms $$ for second baby: Woman not persuaded.

[rodeodance]

A second baby? Russia's mothers aren't persuaded.

By Fred Weir, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Fri May 19, 4:00 AM ET

MOSCOW - Cash for babies is the Kremlin's offer to women in its latest bid to reverse a population decline that threatens to leave large swaths of Russia virtually uninhabited within 50 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060519/wl_csm/obabies;_ylt=AiD_gy44nJ5VrZY.IK0nxIqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

President Vladimir Putin last week defined the crisis as Russia's most acute problem, and promised to spend some of the country's oil profits on efforts to relieve it. He ordered parliament to more than double monthly child support payments to 1,500 rubles (about $55) and added that women who choose to have a second baby will receive 250,000 rubles ($9,200), a staggering sum in a country where average monthly incomes hover close to $330.

On Monday, young women at the Family Planning Youth Center, a nongovernmental clinic for northwest Moscow, said they liked the sound of more money, but suggested that Mr. Putin has no concept of their lives. "A child is not an easy project, and in this world a woman is expected to get an education, find a job, and make a career," says Svetlana Romanicheva, a student who says she won't consider babies for at least five years. She hopes to have one child, but says a second would depend on her life "working out very well." As for Putin's offer, she says "it won't change anything."

Russia's birthrate, falling for decades, has plunged in post-Soviet times, to just 1.17 in 2004 from 2.08 babies per woman in 1990 - far below the 2.4 children required to maintain the population - according to the Federal State Statistics Service. The average rate from 2000-05 in the US, by contrast, was 2.0, according to UN figures, while Mexico, for example, weighed in at 2.4 and Italy at 1.3.

[NJ_Lib]

1. Oh, this plan will work...

... NOT!!! Offering someone an upfront payment which equals their yearly salary times-three, will only tempt women to have that second child for the money, women who otherwise do not want to be mothers again and most likely will neglect that child... Are those the kind of children Pootie had in mind to run his country in a few decades?

[elehhhhna]

2. Yes. Some will do this for all the wrong reasons. But for those who

really want another child? It's a Godsend!

A sibling is the greatest gift you can give your child. (Probably 60% of the time, anyway...)

[NJ_Lib]

4. I don't think he's courting the people who want...

... another child anyway... The people who truly want to be parents don't need an offer like this to have another child... I think he's trying to reach the many families in Russia who stop at one... Making them rethink this decision because the money is so good is just plain stupid... It will bring out all of the greedy people who don't want to be parents, who will just do it for the money, and when the money is all gone? The child is still there...

[donsu]

3. world sperm counts are down. Putin can offer money, smirk can

say all women are pre pregnant and live accordingly. the Saudis can hide their women. but still the world sperm count is down.