https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/comments/154l90c/childfree_people_under_attack_in_switzerland/

"I'm aware there probably aren't too many people in this sub who live in Switzerland but I felt the need to let you know about the insanity that is Swiss politics. Switzerland may be innovative and agile in many aspects, social policy certainly isn't one of them.

"Currently, the future of the swiss statutory pension system is a hot topic.. As in other Western societies the boomers are getting retired and the fertility rate continues to decline (currenty 1.39 children per woman), which means not enough people are actively participated in the workforce to ensure the financing of the welfare system in the medium to long term. At the same time family policy is a disaster compared to other European countries: Statutory maternity leave of 14 weeks, recently introduced paternity leave of 2 weeks (lol), very limited access to day care and if a family gets a spot it is extremely expensive (median price 2600 CHF/3030 USD per child per month in an urban area), which leads to mothers never fully returning to work. Part time is only really accepted in dead end positions and women, especially mothers, are overall not treated well in the labour market.

"Now this economist (old, male of course) has come up with the idea of financially penalising chilfree and childless people by making statutory pension payouts dependent on the number of children. At the same time no more resources should be spent on improving day care situations etc. So essentially women will be penalised for the misconstruction of the welfare system because if you have children, you will likely have to sacrifice your career and part of your pension since your partner won't be doing much of the child care and the day care will likely cost more than you make so you will exit the labour market. If you dont have children then you will be fucked too since you 'have not contributed to the system'.

"I am so angery, women are treated like cattle and childfree people like second class citizens. Damnd if you do, damnd if you dont."
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There are 155 comments, currently. Top ones:

WrestlingWoman
"Next they'll start wondering why so many people are moving to other countries."

rainbow-black-sheep
"My country has only just 'touched' this topic in the public discussion. My SO and I looked at each other and said: 'Well, where would you like to move to?' There's no way I'm living in a country that refuses to tax the companies based on their level of income but thinks of taxing the people based on the lifestyle choice. When we already pay taxes to be used to finance services we're never going to use (day care, schools, playgrounds, junior sports... etc.; which I have no problem with, of course)"

x0Aurora
"This! We already have to pay for child care, public schools and child benefits even for people whom already have quite high incomes here. Childfree people aren't just taxed heavily for services they will never use, they also often have to pay extra for being unmarried or without kids. For instance over here you pay much more being single in city taxes and things like that even though you pollute less than families do. If on top of all of this they are literally going to tax us separately for not having kids, I will literally try to move to a place where they don't."

Sharitan04
"I'm also Swiss and didn't hear about it so far. But if it's just some economist talking about it then I guess we're still quite far away from anything real.

"But should it really happen then I'm leaving Switzerland"

staircasenavy60
"This is a safe place to rant, so don't take this as anything but a suggestion for things to do after you get it out of your system -

"Have you gotten involved in automation policy and experiments in reduced work hours and UBI?

"Spain is going to lose a third (or more) of its population by 2100, almost entirely because of the low birth rate. Spain is building a fund that reimburses companies for part of the cost of automation if those companies share the benefits of automation by reducing human work hours without reducing salaries. The first step is to get people working less than 40 hours/week, but the goal is not to rely on humans to produce GDP -- Spain wants to get to a (far distant) future where machines produce, and humans benefit.

"Spain is also starting programs to reduce xenophobia and racism, so Spain can take in climate change migrants as other regions become unliveable. In the short term (100-200 years) this will help shore up the workforce, while possibly contributing to global stability."