To the editor: I was fascinated by the recent story of the chronicler Robin Abcarian on the entertaining ideas of the White House on how to bring American women to have more babies (“Government pronatalism distorts family values”, “ April 27). Among these ideas, it offers a bonus of $ 5,000 after the birth of a baby. I can't wait to know more about the criteria that will determine who is eligible for this bonus.
Should we be married? Young? Adjust? White? Employee? Rich? Christian? Valid? What if someone had a brush with the law? Where is fighting against a serious illness? I am sure, given the history of this administration, this idea is also well considered to be all the others that we have seen in the last 100 days.
Valerie Burchfield Rhodes, Laguna Niguel
..
To the publisher: Do I have it straight? Our president wants to give $ 5,000 to any woman in the United States who has a baby and rewards mothers of six or more children. Our government also wants to finance Head Start, a program that offers daycare to families with limited means. So the family should accept the $ 5,000 and mom will not work? I don't know how far $ 5,000 go these days, but I suspect that financial calculations are not really well.
Erica Hahn, Monrovia