How to Maintain a Sustainable Society

Solutions for achieving a sustainable society

Populations decline can arise from low birth rates, high death rated, net emigrations or any combination of these. In the modern world, low birth rates are the key. Seventy years ago the developed world adopted two-family norm. Today, its birth rates, with the exception of the United States, are below that norm and below the level required to maintain the population. In this particular situation, and in the absence of migration, almost all the developed world would face population decline in the short or medium term (Coleman & Rowthorn, 2009).
I would recommend the opposite of what China’s government enacted in the 1970’s, by enacting a fertility policy which benefits and also has penalties included in the policy made by Italy or Germany’s government (Weigle, 2011). Many European governments have policies to encourage women to have more children, such as child allowances, tax credits for in-home child care, and discounts on many goods and services for larger families (Wright & Boorse, 2011). If a woman has more than one child, the government should pay for their maternity leave and medical expenses on every daughter they have. Example: Family A has 2 sons and Family B has 3 daughters. Family A has to pay for all medical expenses and taxes. Family B does not have to pay for any medical expenses, they also get a monthly living expense for each daughter from the time they are born until they reach puberty and/or ready to have their own families. The penalties for families that do not want to have children are that they have to pay extra in taxes so that way the families who do have daughters will be able to get their monthly living expense. The more daughters that a country has, the more there will be babies being born each day. They should also have rewards for families that start having children at an earlier age, such as a family vacation or a party in their name (Weigle, 2011). Another obvious solution is to allow more immigration. However, allowing the declining numbers of Italian or German people to be replaced by immigrant populations has implications for art, culture, and religion. Yet just to maintain their current populations, most countries will have to triple their current immigration levels in the near future (Wright & Boorse, 2011). The government should remind their people what is at stake about their population falling and achieve a sustainable society (Weigle, 2011).