First. Pro-natalist policies remain important. At the same time, we must recognize that they are, in effect, a way of compensating for the free-riding of childless people and those with only one child in (very often unintentional free-riding). Government programs compensate for this by transferring money from the pockets of those with few or no children to those with larger families.
Second. If such government programs were abolished, along with the state pension system (after a transitional period, of course), the result would be a further collapse in birth rates, not an increase, as neoliberals would have us believe. Children are not a reliable form of security in old age, and they never have been throughout history. Only property and accumulated wealth can protect people from poverty in their later years.
Third. If improved government programs (including affordable housing) were to bring fertility back to replacement level, they would have to be vastly more generous than anything that has ever emerged in Europe, including in communist countries. After all, South Korea demonstrates that even relatively enormous sums paid to encourage childbirth may fail to produce a sufficient change in behavior. I myself previously proposed paying mothers of three or more children the same lifelong pension that former police officers receive. This would cost between 100 and 120 billion Czech crowns annually. At first, I considered this a sufficient incentive. But having examined the broader picture, I now fear that even this might not be enough.
Fourth. We need to accept that, despite all our efforts, we face decades of low birth rates, and we must begin planning accordingly.
Fifth. We must immediately stop importing foreign labor. Nearly 100,000 foreign workers are brought into our country every year. Considering that a substantial proportion will remain here and bring their families, this, combined with low birth rates, is bringing about population replacement. Anyone who wants Mongolian factory workers should move their operations to Mongolia and sell their products to Mongolian customers.
Sixth. Robotization and automation.
Seventh. We need to restructure our social security and healthcare systems so that taxing labor is no longer their principal source of funding. We are still operating on the historical assumption that working people earn money and that a portion of their earnings is transferred to pensioners. Corporate profits and returns on capital are treated as essentially insignificant items somewhere on the margins. In reality, returns on capital in the Czech Republic (including rental income from real estate) amount to approximately half of all income from labor, and the balance is rapidly shifting in favor of capital. Robotization will accelerate this process.
And now all that remains is to find someone willing to take these issues seriously.