Sat, Mar 19, 2022 page8

• EDITORIAL: Marriage lottery a sour proposition

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  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Monday spoke at a media event promoting a lottery for couples who marry this year.

  One might wonder if the lottery — in which newlyweds could win up to NT$200,000 (US$7,052) — is a publicity stunt, particularly as Ko’s final term as mayor is coming to an end. Ko himself acknowledged that the lottery would not convince couples to marry. One-third of adults over 40 in the city are single, and the city’s population has been steadily decreasing — and aging. However, the NT$3 million in annual prize money from Ko’s lottery would be much better spent on programs that go further toward convincing young people to marry and have children.

  Ko said that only 11,000 marriages were registered in Taipei last year, and that the city’s low birthrate likely coincides with its low marriage rate.

  The next logical step would seem to be for Ko and his administration to figure out why people are not getting married. Most likely the cause is financial — specifically, unaffordable housing and daycare costs, along with stagnant wages. Daycare and housing costs in Taipei are nearly on a par with those in Tokyo, while average salaries in Taipei are half of that city’s, according to the online database Numbeo.

  Facing insurmountable costs, both partners in a marriage must often be employed, but even then they struggle to pay childcare costs on top of a mortgage.

  While couples in Taiwan have traditionally lived with the groom’s parents, surveys show that times have changed and many young Taiwanese women are opposed to subjecting themselves to prying eyes and demands of in-laws, leaving home ownership as the only meaningful path to marriage.

  If Ko and the central government are serious about addressing the low birthrate — and they should be — they need to get serious about tackling the housing bubble and high daycare costs.

  The Taichung City Government has taken on the latter challenge by building more public daycare centers, and lowering daycare costs by 30 percent from the start of this year.

  Despite Taipei’s relatively low birthrate, parents in the city must register on waiting lists for public daycare. Spots are chosen through a lottery system, leaving daycare to chance for couples who cannot afford the exorbitant costs of private childcare.

  Many young couples in Taipei have migrated from other parts of the country for work. That means a low likelihood that they have nearby family members to assist with babysitting while they are at work.

  Taichung has shown that municipal governments can do more to tackle the problem, but ultimately, given that the low birthrate is a national problem, the central government should be making public daycare cheaper and more widely available. If the government cannot build enough public daycare centers, then it should amend legislation to force employers to grant longer paid maternity or paternity leave, so that parents can stay home with children until kindergarten or elementary school.

  Housing problems are more difficult to solve. Legislators have introduced bills to reduce real-estate speculation and to heavily tax owners of multiple properties, but these measures have had little effect.

  As in other places around the world, Taiwan’s real-estate market tends to make the rich richer while shutting out those on limited incomes. If the government does not take bolder action to ensure a path toward home ownership for young working professionals, then housing will remain out of reach for most, and the birthrate will continue to decline.

  Officials frequently cite the crisis of an aging population and declining birthrate as a national security concern. However, if young couples cannot afford daycare and housing, then raising a child is not realistic, and making light of the issue through a lottery for newlyweds will not win hearts or solve problems.

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