Father of many children, economist Krichevsky proposed a scheme to improve demographics

The authorities are scratching their heads: how to stimulate the birth rate in Russia and force the people to give birth. The easiest way to encourage this is already large families. They have already gone through this, and therefore, nothing will frighten them. Well-known economist and father of many children Nikita KRICHEVSKY spoke about his vision of this problem.

Everything depends on money, but not always. The Russian authorities, together with expert groups, once again discussed the next initiatives to stimulate the birth rate in the country. The topics of support for student families, assistance to working parents, measures to reduce the number of abortions, mortgage credit holidays for families with a fourth child under 1.5 years old were touched upon.

All this, of course, is wonderful, but for every argument there is a counterargument right there, turning any proposal of officials, unfortunately, in most cases terribly distant from the people, into zilch. In short, who is to blame and what to do?

For example, in order to get a mortgage loan vacation for a fourth child, you must first give birth to three, all the while paying the bank a tidy sum. And these children need to be fed, watered, educated. Even if you give birth non-stop, this process will take at least 4-5 years. All these years the woman has been on maternity leave, one man has been working. Normal, right? In addition, the same credit holidays do not mean at all that the mortgage will not have to be repaid at all or that the interest on it will be reduced, and the body of the loan will decrease. It will just take longer to repay the debt. That is, this measure can be applied, but they will not start giving birth like undermined families for the sake of some illusory prospect of being in bondage at the bank for not 15, but 20 years.

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– It is necessary to change the attitude towards large families in the country. In addition to the “crust”, a large family, in fact, has no benefits. There is no federally approved status of a large family, there is no public respect. It seems that no one needs it, except for ourselves. You have many children, so what? – the father of six children, the famous economist Nikita Krichevsky, is perplexed.

— And how should public respect be expressed? Besides money, of course…

So at least make a movie about us. As in the days of the Soviet Union. “One day twenty years later” with Natalia Gundareva. Now at the state level there is no program for a strategy to support large families. Everyone is talking about it, but there is still no single set of measures. All these measures also vary by region, but I think they need to be combined at least into some common minimum. Including payments, which at best amount to only 6-7 thousand per month per child. Yes, payouts! Why parking, for example, in Moscow for large families is free only for a period until the youngest child reaches 16 years old, and then thanks to everyone, everyone is free. Such a right should be given forever. The kids don’t go anywhere. In the regions, there are no free parking lots for large families at all. Although such parking lots already appear. Further: this, of course, is the improvement of living conditions. In those areas where housing construction is actively underway (and there are not very many of them), it is necessary to introduce a standard as soon as possible, according to which part of the living space for large families should be paid from the budget.

— Federal? Regional?

– It’s not important. Federal, regional and natural monopolists. The latter should be required. There are opportunities for this. How else? For a Russian person, the main thing is a roof over their heads. The first child will be born under any circumstances and even in a hut, but the second or third appear, basically, consciously and in their apartment. Most often, by the way, one-room apartments are taken into a mortgage. But you won’t give birth to many children there either. The capital is paid out once. And this, I think, is wrong. Look where it is mainly spent: paying off the mortgage – ok, educating children – we feed businessmen from education, future pensions – there is a big risk, if the money goes to a private pension fund, then meet. Let us recall the case of the runaway banker Boris Mints. He also had his own PF, where maternity capital was invested. And where are they now? All insinuations about how maternity capital should be spent should be stopped. For example, if for education, then only for the state, no tutors and private universities. It’s public money. In addition, I believe that this amount should be given for the first, second, third child and increase with each child. Now, on the contrary, they pay the most for the first, 600+ thousand rubles, for the second balance of 100+ thousand, and nothing for the third. Provide for early retirement for grandparents of large families, but with the condition that they will sit with their grandchildren. If the check reveals fraud, then the citizen must return the illegally received money to the state and go back to work.

– So before raising the retirement age, the parents of the young and without it were sitting with their grandchildren! Free and without prejudice.

– Now only mothers with many children have such a benefit, they retire 4 years earlier. The next important measure, in my opinion, is to return the payment of 10 thousand rubles, which were issued a couple of times during the pandemic to prepare the child for school. I understand that this is a huge amount for the national budget, but it is necessary. Further. Returning to large families. The benefit of 50% of the payment for housing and communal services, which they are entitled to, is a mockery, since it applies only to housing services – the same cleaning of the territory, garbage collection, but not to the rest of the “communal”. It is paid in full. We also encountered that the lion’s share of payments: heating, water – comes without discounts. Electricity, however, is subsidized. But I believe that these benefits should be for all utilities, otherwise they are meaningless, in the future it would also be nice to extend this initiative to families with two children. And maybe for those who have one child. To stimulate the childless too.

– All this is good, but still to understand where to get the funds for all this? After all, as they shout at all branches of power: there is no money in the budget. There is no money, but you give birth. What if you search?

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29000 dated March 30, 2023

Newspaper headline:
There is no money, but you give birth!