Much of infertile world is the wealthy, developed part that does most of the innovating and building that makes it possible for so many of us to be alive and prospering today. For those of us who intend to live well into the future, that’s not a happy fact, and if we want to live better lives, it’s a fact that demands a solution. Unfortunately, child benefits intended to promote fertility tend to have only small to modest effects. A problem with that inference is that most child benefits have also been small to modest in terms of generosity. In truth, massive benefits have not been tried, and, indeed, may seem to make little fiscal sense.

But Robin Hanson has an interesting proposal that might just work, and could fix Social Security in the process. The idea is simple: Let parents claim a portion of the taxes their children pay.

In the Hanson Scheme, the lifetime value of the payouts should be left uncapped. This is where the massive pronatal transfer side of the scheme comes in: uncapped benefits from the taxes of people’s children mean more kids net higher total payouts, and making kids more productive does the same. If parents obtain a constant fraction of the taxes their children pay, the upside to a given birth could be enormous. Because the transfers in this scheme are dependent on ongoing taxation and made immediately available, there will not be a funding issue like there has been for Social Security.