The family as an economic institution II
Notable are the changes due to the last stage of demographic transition:
On the one hand, the fall in birth rate due to:
* The impact of urbanization.
* A society with access to wider range of goods, which causes children to behave as avid consumers (however, this statement must be weighed against the average increase in family income).
* Currently, fewer people get married
* You home later, which adds to greater social permissiveness of the fact of cohabitation.
* The extension of educational level by a layer of the population compared to the past.
* The difficulties of a high unemployment rate that remains stubbornly high quickly, due to labor market rigidities.
* The incorporation of women into the labor market.
* Greater knowledge of the existence and use of contraceptives.
* A general increase in divorce.
* The clear trend of decline in family-type business.
* Dependent children to a high age.
* In general, the climate of insecurity in times of crisis.
And, second, falling mortality rate, primarily by medical advances and improved quality of life through scientific advances.
This demographic trend has led, among other things:
* A decrease in the cohorts of young people who can attend to their elders in the final days of his life, which has led to a proliferation of a large number of residences. Lost affection.
* A stalemate for the transmission and preservation of family traditions.
* Increased availability of personal assistance to the elderly and services tailored to them. Therefore, the “nuclear” family may be resentful in budgetary terms.
Anyway what is meant is that the environment and conditions customary for the family. Under a moral constraints, difficult divorces occur due to possible subsequent scandal. In a more open-minded society, an increasing number of divorces can lead to profound changes in family, for better or for worse. The major facilities and communication channels (Internet, media, etc) have made communication between family members look drastically reduced. In times of economic crisis Keynes in England, people saved a significant portion of their income for fear of the future. In good times, the family fell into debt to buy more goods access to better educate children, etc.., Including the security “extra” that provides a generous welfare state that is difficult to dismantle.
The truth is that the family is an evolving institution. Economic policies related to family condition (quickly), but also changes in the family favor the development of new policies aimed at it (albeit very slowly). Hence, the family must be studied with a dynamic, not static, as in many classical models. An example: the famous policy of “only child” of China to curb population that clearly has not had much success. Masculinization of the population that has caused this policy has meant that many men seek foreign wife. When that happens, it creates mixed families and children of various cultures that might impede the education programs and create a cultural and social conflict, the massively large-scale trend.
The problem arises when, with a large bureaucracy, decisions relating to lobbying and insufficient reforms due to the pursuit of votes in the short term, the State can not give an immediate response to such changing needs of families. When engaged, may no longer be necessary and do evil, but that will take care to speak of the institution “state.”
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