You give birth to children so I can get a good pension

I've touched on this topic a couple of times, but on Twitter @ivars_auzins made big eyes and said that there is no evidence that a larger number of children means a smaller pension. Since, as far as I understand, a person does not intend to use Mother Google and logical thinking, I must made his job.

Look at Latvia story. First, about what a large family means. From the 2023 population survey conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB). «Last year, the risk of poverty increased for households with two adults and three or more dependent children - from 17.1% in 2021 to 19.5% in 2022.» Why is it increasing? Because in such a family it is very difficult or unrealistic for a mother to work. You have to try to get by on child benefit, which has not changed for at least ten years. Logically, the risk of poverty is increasing.

Now let's look at how this affects the pension. Let's assume that a mother has five children, whom she gives birth to every year and a half. Not a good tone, but let's assume that she is capable of it. She has been on parental leave for almost eight years and has not worked during this time. During this time, she loses the best career opportunities and even after that it is difficult for her to return to the market as a specialist. If she was lucky enough before that finish university, then even more, but if she was not lucky enough - the state does not support the education of mothers, everything has to be paid for out of pocket, not everyone can afford it. In addition, five children mean that the mother will most likely be on sick leave for at least a week or even two weeks until the youngest finishes kindergarten - it is practically unrealistic to build a normal career for at least another seven years, which means that in the state-imposed pension system, where a normal pension is provided by a good career, such a mother has already lost 15 years. Yes, after a long struggle, they managed to get childcare leave to count towards retirement, but numerically it doesn't add much more.

In short - a large family is a risk of poverty and there is a very, very high chance that the mother of these children will have a small pension. Who will have a large pension? The woman who has no children, who could have made a career. Who will pay her this pension? The children of the mother of a large family. You can immediately feel what our government supports and what it does not. Isn't it? Especially when it talks about demographic support.

Anyone who tells you how great and smart is politics, which ignore this system and mumble something about demographic support, you can safely call cretins. The only one in Latvia, who mentioned that something should be changed in this nightmare, was Imants Paradnieks. Latvian goverment supported media swallowed him in the crowd and since then he has not had the courage to raise this topic anymore.