August 16, 2007

Subsidizing Sex In Siberia?

Well, actually in Ulyanovsk, but do you know how difficult it is to use alliteration with Ulyanovsk? Via Jules Crittenden, the Boston Herald catches up with the latest government program in Russia, where Vladimir Putin has to bribe his fellow Russian to procreate. Make babies -- win great prizes! And even the runners-up to the parenting contest get lovely parting gifts.

At Heading Right, I remind people that demographics is destiny, and Russia has had some unique issues with population growth. They're not the only ones with problems in that regard, and the rest of the West may not be laughing in the near future.

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Comments (11)

Posted by Ned | August 16, 2007 8:56 AM

Give them all a free one month supply of vodka and two paper bags. Maybe that will do the "trick".

Posted by Jazz | August 16, 2007 9:03 AM

Hey, it's a strategy that worked for Catholics forever and the Mormons have certainly been giving it a go. If they hadn't chased out all the regligous folks back in the day they might have figured this out far sooner.

Posted by olddeadmeat | August 16, 2007 9:44 AM

Hmmm....

"Uniting the Unwise and the Unwed with the Unborn in Ulyanovsk"

Maybe not.

Cheers

Posted by Barnestormer | August 16, 2007 11:16 AM

Simbirsk

should prove allit'l less difficult.

Posted by rbj | August 16, 2007 11:57 AM

Underwriting unifying in Ulyanovsk?

Hm, still need a good "u" word for making the beast with two backs.

Funny thing is, most of my liberal friends are only having one child. And in the book "Morey and Me" the author (a liberal journalist) descries the grief he got because he and his wife decided to have three children. Apparently two is the upper limit these days.

Posted by Jeepster | August 16, 2007 12:37 PM

Simbirsk would be better in another way - Ulyanovsk is the soviet name, Simbirsk the traditional name.

Posted by JDFlanagan | August 16, 2007 12:43 PM

Actually, using alliteration is pretty much impossible here. Since Ulyanovsk begins with a vowel, you'd use assonance.

Posted by Nels | August 16, 2007 12:53 PM

"Ulyanovsk has declared Sept. 12 the “Day of Conception” and for the third year in a row will give couples the day off from work . . . so they can work on making babies."

Ulyanovsk first needs to learn a little about how ovulation and fertility work.

Posted by braindead | August 16, 2007 4:49 PM

It may not be such a bad concept. At the rate things are going here, Spanish will be the National Language in about 20 years.

Posted by Steve Skubinna | August 16, 2007 6:54 PM

I have read in several sources that abortions outnumber live births in Russia. So maybe rather than ecourage conception, the trick would be to encourage people to keep the ones they do conceive.

Posted by ERNurse | August 17, 2007 4:06 AM

Well, really. Who in God's name would WANT to have their child grow up in Putinslovakia?

And by the way... "parting" gifts. Good one, Cap'n.

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