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The relationship recession is going global
Baby bonuses put the cart before the horse when a growing share of people are without a partner.
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Relationships are not just becoming less common, but increasingly fragile.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
John Burn-Murdoch
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There’s a reason birth rates are an increasingly prominent feature in discourse and policymaking today. Population ageing and decline is one of the most powerful forces in the world, shaping everything from economics to politics and the environment.
But a weakness to the debate – perhaps even the term “birth rates” itself – is that it implies the goal is the same today as it was in the past: finding ways to encourage couples to have more children. A closer look at the data suggests a whole new challenge.
