Why Trump's proposed $5k baby bonus is an insult to women.

[SunSeeker]

Posted on Facebook by Amanda Rosen:

In case yall missed it… Trump is gathering ideas on how to reverse low birth rates. These include offering $5,000 incentives and … menstrual classes. Here is my $0.02 that’s prob worth a penny but humor me.

If reversing the U.S. birth rate was as simple as throwing a $5,000 check at new moms and offering menstrual cycle classes, we’d be drowning in diaper blowouts and baby registries. But spoiler alert: it’s not. America’s birth rate has been on a steady decline for over a decade, hitting record lows in 2023. And no, it’s not because women forgot how ovulation works.

Let’s talk about the actual reasons people aren’t popping out babies like it’s 1952.

First, childcare in this country costs more than a used Honda Civic… per child. Daycare often runs higher than rent, which means a lot of families look at their bank accounts, then look at their toddlers, and think: “You know what? One is good.”

(Unless you’re me. 🫠 )

Then there’s the mental load. That invisible spreadsheet moms are carrying around 24/7? You know, the one tracking school picture day, pediatrician appointments, whether there’s milk in the fridge, and what form needs signing for the field trip? Yeah, that. It’s exhausting. And adding another baby to that mix isn’t a lighthearted decision … it’s a full-on strategic operation.

People are also waiting longer to have kids. And not because they’re out partying until 3 a.m. They’re trying to get stable: financially, emotionally, professionally. Turns out, it’s hard to plan for a baby when you’re still trying to afford a one-bedroom apartment with a stove that doesn’t double as your heater.

And no, it’s not the fault of eating too much avocado toast.

Let’s also not forget the joy that is our healthcare system. The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world. Fun! And we still don’t guarantee paid parental leave. So sure, have that baby but don’t expect time to, you know, heal or bond with them.

Fun fact: this applies to men, too. At Alex’s previous place of employment, in the year of our lord 2025, he finally had paid 12 week parental leave. The bare minimum.

And then there’s reproductive rights. When you restrict access to safe abortion and contraception, people respond by not taking chances. Young adults are out here getting IUDs and vasectomies faster than you can say “Justice Alito.”

Add in general economic chaos… rising costs of housing, healthcare, food, everything… and it’s no surprise that many people feel like parenting is an Olympic sport they can’t afford to train for.

Oh, and some folks are also worried about raising kids in a world that’s either on fire, underwater, or both. Climate anxiety is real, and not exactly a turn-on for family planning.

So if we really want to boost the birth rate? Try affordable childcare. Paid family leave. Universal healthcare. Reproductive freedom. Support for working parents. Basic dignity for mothers. You know, actual solutions.

But sure. Let’s start with “menstrual classes.” Bless his ❤

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0p3wuTS1wWsnPKvoSBAVtgJXoHSeUCJGymPh2sdhUSveSiWiRvQN4uRVgPSuc6UpHl&id=179900156&mibextid=Nif5oz

[Irish_Dem]

1. Trump thinks everyone can be bought and sold for not much money.

And thinks American women cannot figure out that $5K doesn't begin to cover the costs of raising a child.

[Luciferous]

2. Right, 5k won't even cover the cost

of the hospital bill

[Irish_Dem]

5. Yes it's a drop in the bucket.

[Diraven]

3. Just the out of pocket costs

For having a baby in a hospital runs $3000 on average in the US.

[SunSeeker]

10. Without insurance, the average cost in 2023 for a vaginal delivery with no complications was $28,655.

I'm sure it's much more now.

And who's gonna pay for the childcare or time lost from work?

[UpInArms]

4. And ... has anyone priced in the cost of prenatal care

And delivery?

[SunSeeker]

12. It costs around $350,000 to get a child through age 18; $1 million for birth through college.

https://business.time.com/2009/09/18/1-1-million-cost-to-raise-a-child-from-birth-through-college/

Without insurance, the average cost in 2023 for a vaginal delivery with no complications was $28,655.

[meadowlander]

6. And lest we lose sight of the point entirely, 8 billion people is enough already.

If the policy issue you're trying to solve is how to take care of aging people if the population is declining why not start with raising taxes noting the massive productivity increases of the past 40 years? Why not harness some of that to provide for retirement in dignity for the people who actually made it happen?

Do something about this:



If we as a society wanted to take care of the elderly, we could just choose to take care of the elderly and make cuts somewhere else like our bloated military or rescinding all the tax breaks for the rich and subsidies for people who probably don't actually need them.

We don't live on a planet that can sustain a paradigm of maximizing growth forever. And we're not going to be colonising Mars in vast numbers in the timeframes that Elon thinks we will be. So this pro-natalist bullshit is just throwing lighter fluid on the fire.

[progressoid]

7. That sounds like SOSHALISM!!11

[Jrose]

8. This is another attempt by DJT to keep women out

of businesses, politics and education...
and to keep them at home, too busy struggling to care for children with dwindling government aid.
The families of white parents will probably survive, but the families of non-white parents will probably not.

[Hekate]

11. "White" does not mean well-off and able to afford only one paycheck in this economy

[Hekate]

9. Here's another kicker for menstrual classes: apps that anyone can read that track ovulation...

Then “anyone” can be empowered to check if you are pregnant and ask why you want to travel outside your red state.

It’s bad enough that non-app entities like grocery stores that sell pregnancy tests can then offer the card-holder coupons for all kinds of baby supplies for the happy event. More than one father of a teenage daughter has been caught off guard by this.

In real life. In the here and now.

[Diamond_Dog]

13. If I were a young woman now and I lived in a state with R government

My main fear these days as far as having a child would be if something went wrong, would I be able to have abortion care of needed or would the law forbid that and increase my chances of dying, or if I miscarried would they arrest me.

Secondly, many women who have a career they love or perhaps studied a long time for, don’t want to be set back by having kids, it may be a little better today, but for such a long time it’s always been the the woman who loses career time, social security units, social connections, and income.

[alarimer]

14. How very Nazi of him.

It is not true that there is a low birth rate. There are just too many "wrong" people having kids.

[AdamGG]

19. And Hitler totally did

have programs to promote Germans to have more babies. Also, the people who would choose to get pregnant for a $5,000 check are more likely to be people who can't afford the cost of having a kid.

[Chemical Bill]

15. It might help...

if the minimum wage were quintupled.

[Ilsa]

16. Another objective of Project 2025 has hit the planning stage.

No one should trust narcissist F47 or Musk for family planning advice.

[swong19104]

17. $5K

is like tossing some cash at a whore. Something he’s quite familiar with. Just plain disgusting.

[70sEraVet]

18. I've noticed he changes his mind a lot.

And so, think of the money he will save if he decides 7 months later that it would be better if instead of cash, he just gives the new mothers an NFT of his 'assassination attempt'.

[Aussie105]

20. $5k a. month would do it for some.

Nt

[SunSeeker]

21. Maybe, if $5k was paid out monthly for at least 18 years.

But that's assuming 0% inflation. That $5k would need to be tied to the Consumer Price Index (i.e., get a Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA) each year to keep up with inflation. You need about $1 Million in today's dollars to raise a child from birth through college. https://business.time.com/2009/09/18/1-1-million-cost-to-raise-a-child-from-birth-through-college/

[Buns_of_Fire]

22. "Birthin' For Buck$" - Rump's latest reality show. nt

[SunSeeker]

24. More like "Birthin' For Bupkis" - as anyone can tell you who knows how much it actually costs to raise a kid.

https://business.time.com/2009/09/18/1-1-million-cost-to-raise-a-child-from-birth-through-college/

[valleyrogue]

23. Trump and the P25 crowd are 55 or 60 years too late to the party.

From the time of the second wave of the women's movement, following the aberrant 1950s throughout most of the 1960s, there was and remains NO turning back for women, not just economically but women LIKE earning their own money, doing work they like or working at all to get out of the house. The pill and legal abortion were big factors in women having more choices on how to live their lives. The trajectory of fewer children and fewer marriages is at least a century old, if not older, thanks to industrialization and medical advances.

Women's increased rejection of patriarchy and its institutions like marriage and the "traditional" family is what has so many men butthurt. These men, basically MRAs, form the core of the MAGA movement, the core of the P25 crowd, the core of the GOP, the core of the "Christian reconstructionists." They can't use or abuse women anymore. They can't use them as "bangmaids," as younger women call the female sex role. They are angry they aren't getting laid as much as they think they are owed. Their entitlement to women's time, labor, and bodies has been undermined for good.

THIS is the primary driver of all this nonsense of trying to coerce women "back to the home." The economy doesn't have as much an influence these days as the fact more and more women LOVE being alone and not some slave to some manbaby with a house full of screaming brats. Women, younger and older, are not necessarily "delaying" marriage or children--they are in fact REJECTING them and more and more rejecting relationships with men altogether.

Of course, racism and xenophobia play a role as evidenced by the absolutely stupid "great replacement theory" which some French nutballs of all people came up with and was debunked. However, it is women who are the target because patriarchy is being dismantled.

[lindysalsagal]

25. Sounds like the dreaded welfare that the gop always loathed.

[Walleye]

26. I say if men want more babies, let them try to create them themselves.

Not only are they making a world where women don’t want to bring children, women like me who are too old and don’t have any kids, are thinking we made the right decision

[Irish_Dem]

27. Trump sees all women as hookers, they can be bought and sold to do his bidding.

[yardwork]

28. A thousand recs. Every word.

I'll add that when I had children, more than thirty years ago, my workplace insurance covered every penny of prenatal care, labor and delivery. That kind of coverage is long-gone now. The $5k bribe TrumpCo offers might cover the copays now - maybe.

[everybody everybody]

29. You live in Southern California

talking about one-bedroom apartments using the stove to heat? Is that how you try and sound sympathetic? 🥴

[SunSeeker]

30. Um wut? I didn't write this. BTW, it does get cold in So. Cal.