On Saturday April 1st, 2023, ASPE, the Supreme Confederation of Large Families of Greece presented to the public a new book on demographic and family policies that members of its scientific committee complied.
The book advocated the need for a three pillar approach for demographic and family policies:
– establishment of a Ministry for the family
– a framework law for families with one, two or three children as well as the obligation of the Government to analyze the impact of every legislation proposal on family and family life,
– a national legal framework for the support of multi-child/large families in Greece.
Representatives of the political parties participating to the Parliament talked about it, without any criticism on those presented by the Book. One of the speakers said that it is not matter of whether we agree or not; it should only be a matter of scheduling.
However, it seems that most politicians develop their thinking for families in terms of poverty aversion rather than development policies for demography and family! Difficult for them to distinguish between the welfare and anti-poverty policies, and the demographic and family policies. However, without the latter, the former needs to support more and more people. Demographic and family policies represent the prevention and deterrence side of social problems, whereas welfare and anti-poverty policies represent the recovery / cure side. The sooner this becomes clear, the better for the quality of life of all families.
