Clinton: $5,000 for every U.S. baby

[Nym90]

I think it would be more helpful to use that money to pay for Universal Healthcare and making college cheaper/investing in pre-college education.

Agreed.

[Platypus]

The birthrate in Australia is up since the introduction of the baby bonus (a similar payment we have here in Australia). That said, the increase was being seen pre-baby bonus, although it is larger now.

[The Duke]

This is Hillary's first good idea in the campaign.

I'm not sure there would be inflation.  If one presumes that everyone will spend every dime of their money on consumer goods when they turn 18, then it would, yes (Even then, the consumption would remain a very small share of GDP and therefore any inflation would be minimal).

More likely people won't spend it all at once, they will keep some of it invested.  Much of the money that does get spent will be spent on college costs, which means less borrowing for student loans, which actually means less inflation.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Epic fail.

Yes it is.

We shouldn't be promoting population growth. We need to make promotion of birth controls, contraception and legal abortion a condition of recieving any food/medical/other humanitarian aid.

Interesting idea.

Also pay people to get abortions and voluntarily sterilize themselves. Apply the reverse for IQ/creative people to boost the nation's IQ. Pay people with high IQs/noted authors/educated peiople to have kids but put special taxes on income for people with IQs below 120 who reproduce(adoption wouldn't incure taxes).

[DanielX]

Such a blatant money handout?

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Yes. We need to reduce global population and I figure that promoting womans rights/abortion/contraceptives/vuluntary sterilization both at home and abroad is much more humane then... other methods which could be done to achieve that goal.

[Governor PiT]

will just incourage more illigitimate children, which is the primary cause of poverty.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

will just incourage more illigitimate children, which is the primary cause of poverty.

For once in your life you post something I agree with.

[Politico]

The future of Social Security is up in the air, and she's proposing this garbage? She'll say and do anything. No heart and soul.

[jokerman]

Actually, this was part of a series of good ideas released by the DLC a couple years back.  Gradually Clinton has been integrating them into her campaign.  The idea of simplification of all of the confusing college tax credits and aid programs into a single annual tax deducation, which she has recently proposed, came from this policy release.  The "American Dream Initiatives," I believe they were called.

[RRB]

Pure pandering.  She was speaking to some sort of urban minority group, which is good, but she said this to make them happy because they like to hear these sorts of things.  There is no way such a thing would get through congress.  It is a mute point.  I'm sure it will show up in ads next fall by whoever is the republican nominee.  In 2002 in MI, Jennifer Granholm said in passing in front of a black audience something to the effect that she understood their interest in reparations.  Dick Postumas campaigned saying that she would tax us and give handouts to minorities.  We all know that the right likes the race card.  I works with their crowd since racists almost always republican.  The goal here is to get them to the poles.  Once again, the MI legislature would have never approved such a measure anyway so her right wing opponent was simply trying to use hatred of blacks as a way to get racists out to vote.   He lost the election.

[Χahar]

Better than Iraq.

[LadyJane]

Give $10,000 for every abortion instead and make birth control and condoms free.

I agree....a lot of people should not be allowed to reproduce.

[War on Want]

Why are so many people here supporting Eugenics and Population control? Seriously. What you are suggesting is a form of class warfare and you should be ashamed. The Nazis were for something almost exactly the same except more radical. They wanted the poor to be sterilized , as the were untermenshen.
My parents are the brightest on Earth and I perform great in school, and am one of the smartest kids, in a difficult Charter school. I am proof that it doesn't matter how stupid people are, they can still have smart or really smart kids. Even your twisted theories on life were true, it would still be so cruel and unjust to make people not reproduce, just because they had the bad luck to be born without smarts
And I thought the Eugenics was gone in America. You suck Abraham and LadyJane and you probably should join a Fascist or Neo-Nazi party as that is where you belong.

[ukchris82]

Whilst I think the idea is an excellent one, I can't imagine it going down well in America, which is more to the 'right' than Europe (where I live).

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Why are so many people here supporting Eugenics and Population control? Seriously. What you are suggesting is a form of class warfare and you should be ashamed. The Nazis were for something almost exactly the same except more radical. They wanted the poor to be sterilized , as the were untermenshen.
My parents are the brightest on Earth and I perform great in school, and am one of the smartest kids, in a difficult Charter school. I am proof that it doesn't matter how stupid people are, they can still have smart or really smart kids. Even your twisted theories on life were true, it would still be so cruel and unjust to make people not reproduce, just because they had the bad luck to be born without smarts
And I thought the Eugenics was gone in America. You suck Abraham and LadyJane and you probably should join a Fascist or Neo-Nazi party as that is where you belong.

How is paying people to not have kids the same as forcible sterilization? Also I don't see any parallels between allowing voluntary sterilization, abortion, contraception and the nazi's extermination of undermenschen so I'm lost here. Also reported for calling me a nazi.

[War on Want]

Why are so many people here supporting Eugenics and Population control? Seriously. What you are suggesting is a form of class warfare and you should be ashamed. The Nazis were for something almost exactly the same except more radical. They wanted the poor to be sterilized , as the were untermenshen.
My parents are the brightest on Earth and I perform great in school, and am one of the smartest kids, in a difficult Charter school. I am proof that it doesn't matter how stupid people are, they can still have smart or really smart kids. Even your twisted theories on life were true, it would still be so cruel and unjust to make people not reproduce, just because they had the bad luck to be born without smarts
And I thought the Eugenics was gone in America. You suck Abraham and LadyJane and you probably should join a Fascist or Neo-Nazi party as that is where you belong.

How is paying people to not have kids the same as forcible sterilization? Also I don't see any parallels between allowing voluntary sterilization, abortion, contraception and the nazi's extermination of undermenschen so I'm lost here. Also reported for calling me a nazi.

Never mind. I am just saying that even though there is a huge line between paying people to be sterilized, and by killing off the untermenshen, you still seem to want all stupid people to be essentially wiped out, for money.
Oh yeah and I never called you a Nazi, I said that you believed in a form of Eugenics, which the Nazis supported.
I am sorry if this came off as harsh but I really, really hate anything relating to the government interfering in family life, even if it just an incentive.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

What I want is a better functioning America with a higher average IQ and less problems than now. Also how is encouraging stupid people not to breed the same as wiping them out(also untermenshen? wtf? I'm not racist I just don't like stupid people). Yes I am pro-eugenics but that doesn't mean I support the same kind the nazis do(they support authoritarian eugenics while I support liberal eugenics). Keep in mind that societies function better with a higher average IQ(also lower IQ people are more likely to fall for religious/political demagogues, be easily swayed and tend to be more reactionary in their reactions to things in general(this translates into favoring reactionary politics)) of the population. It's in the interests of moderates/liberals/libertarians to support programs like my proposed ones since it'd reduce the parts of the population most prone to being reactionary minded and easily swayed(AKA conservative/populist voters).

[IDS Judicial Overlord John Dibble]

What I want is a better functioning America with a higher average IQ and less problems than now.

Sorry, that's impossible. 100 will always be the average IQ by definition.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

What I want is a better functioning America with a higher average IQ and less problems than now.

Sorry, that's impossible. 100 will always be the average IQ by definition.

Not true. If there's less people on the lower ends of the IQ, the US average IQ would go up because of sheer numbers.

[phk]

What I want is a better functioning America with a higher average IQ and less problems than now.

Sorry, that's impossible. 100 will always be the average IQ by definition.

Not true. If there's less people on the lower ends of the IQ, the US average IQ would go up because of sheer numbers.

The average is curved to 100.

[IDS Judicial Overlord John Dibble]

What I want is a better functioning America with a higher average IQ and less problems than now.

Sorry, that's impossible. 100 will always be the average IQ by definition.

Not true. If there's less people on the lower ends of the IQ, the US average IQ would go up because of sheer numbers.

The average is curved to 100.

What he said.

[Joe Republic]

Anybody with a high enough IQ would have known that.

[zorkpolitics]

"I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home," she said."

A bit ironic, this is  a personnel account for each citizen, just what Bush proposed to do for social security, but Democrats vilified as a scheme.

[Harry]

This is the norm in European countries, this isn't weird.