I agree that it isn't simple economics - my point is that it's currently very difficult for people to have kids, because it's expensive and the career interruption can financially harm too, and that efforts should be made to lessen those concerns. I doubt I have the life experience to suggest the best idea, but the past family unit of one parent working and one looking after children seems far better and simpler than both working and struggling to pay for childcare. I completely get the point on dependency culture too (believe I sit further right on the political spectrum than you), but I believe a system that alleviates that could be introduced. For example, I agree with the recent policy of limiting child benefit to the first two children; we just need more people to have up to two children than current (prospective) parents having more than two kids.
The election idea was off the top of my head, but I certainly think government needs to think beyond their 5 year terms. Obviously, they need incentives to do that though as there's no benefit to them laying the groundwork for another party to either stop development or claim all of the credit. Maybe the American founding fathers were correct and political parties should be abolished!
