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Oh, would you or any of the natalists prefer to live in the high TFR paradise of Niger? Ridiculous to pretend that's the only meaningful metric.
It's not. But it is an important one, especially when people in America repeatedly state they aren't having as many kids as they'd like to have. Why should America be subsidizing African TFR above our own below replacement, and below American family's personally desired, TFR?
They're not subsidizing Nigerian daycare. They're subsidizing life-saving treatment.
If you mean "why don't they cut them off so they have fewer kids": a) see "not everything is about TFR"; some people think it's good that people don't die actually, even if they'd have six kids at their funeral. That is insect logic. b) it's unclear that making their lives more precarious will stop them. They had a higher TFR before. Maybe they'd have fewer kids the less they needed to hedge against disaster.
I don't think the sorts of people who do this stuff are particularly interested in boosting the number of kids every African woman is having, quite the opposite. They're likely the sorts who also support family planning and female emancipation and education that they hope will have the same effect on Africa's TFR as it's had elsewhere. I think we discussed Macron stating this explicitly a while ago.
If you want to go that route you might gain from the soft power and proven competence that comes from stopping people from dying.
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