Barcelona. Plaza de Cataluña, 3 enero 2023. Foto JPQ.
El Economist cuenta la historia con mucha precisión:
[ .. ]
“I played the lottery every week after my second son was born,” says Inés, a small-business owner in Madrid. Having failed to score the winning ticket, she decided not to have the third child she would have liked. The gap in Spain between the number of children born (1.19 per woman) and the number desired (around two) is one of Europe’s highest. Alicia Adserà, an economist at Princeton, looks for explanations wider than those (like child care, maternity leave, child tax breaks or men’s housework) directly related to family. She says that broader conditions—in particular the jobs market—play a critical role too.
«Spanish women surged into education and work after the “national Catholic” dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. The country built a wave of child-care centres, and today subsidises them with a voucher each month.
«Spanish maternity leave is relatively miserly (16 weeks) by European standards; but men get the same amount as women. Grandparents provide a great deal of help with children, and for richer families, immigration (especially from Latin America) provides a source of affordable nannies.
«But despite all that, Spain lags begin in one crucial area: opportunities for the young. The youth unemployment rate is among the highest in the rich world, at around 35%. A study of the years 2008-16 found Spanish youngsters worked for almost eight years stringing together temporary contracts before landing a permanent one. This delays marriage as well as childbirth; almost half of 25- to 34-year-olds now live with their parents…». The Economist, 17 febrero 2023, Why there are so few babies in southern Europe.
Las negritas son mías.
Muy groseramente:
«Jugaba a la lotería, esperando ganar para poder pagar los gastos de un nuevo hijo. No gané: decidí que no tendría un tercer hijo…».
Los indices de fertilidad / natalidad más bajos de Europa, cuando los deseos de hijos se encuentran entre los más altos.
Los índices de paro juvenil más altos de Europa coinciden con la emancipación más tardía.
No entraré en reflexiones filosóficas. Salta a la vista una tragedia histórica, que viene de lejos:
Catástrofe histórica: el invierno demográfico de España, 2.
Urbanismo, sexualidad y crisis en nuestras ciudades.
España, víctima del déficit de calidad en las relaciones amorosas.
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