Warning bell on slow-burning family issues

Thomas Malthus, who was born 250 years ago, wrote extensively on the harmful effects of population growth on incomes. He influenced many economists in their risk assessment of high fertility and growing populations that threatened the world's food supply, standard of living, and environment. The time when large families were perceived as a threat to the well-being of society are now long behind us. Today we face more challenging, slow burning family issues. According to Eurostat statistics, Malta is among 80 countries that have fewer births than required to replace the number of individuals who die each year. At 1.42 Malta's fertility rate is even below the EU average of 1.58. The implications of these worrying statistics may not make exciting headline news, but they are certainly very important for the well-being of our society and the economy. In western countries, including Malta, retirement incomes and medical care of the elderly are largely financed by taxes on younger employees. Low birth rates will lead to fewer workers in the medium term contributing to finance social security payments. What is even more worrying for Malta is that 'both the participation rate in the work...

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