One Child policy

[Willy The Londoner]

China's one child policy has been scrapped as from today.

The reason being is that in 20 or so years 1/3 of Chinese will be retired and they need a larger population to accommodate the cost involved.

So are we heading for 2 billion in the coming years?

Willy

[David E]

I think with the rising affluence in China and the associated cost of bringing up children....basic care, child care (working parents), education etc etc etc it may just be that the desire for many children will be overtaken by these new realities. As has happened in the West, rising affluence has ALWAYS tended to depress the birthrate, not the opposite as may be assumed ??

We will see.

Ming is convinced that 2 child families will be the max, except for the rural peasants who need large, cheap labour forces that are cheap to make if you dont have TV, movies, theatre or other distractions   

[Willy The Londoner]

Many people interviewed on TV after the announcement did say that they would stick to having just one child because of costs involved.

Abortion is the main form of birth control here with 400,000 having taken place since the one child policy was introduced which also makes it another reason while there are more males born in that period than females. 

Willy

[Robertt S]

I believe the one-child policy is also the main reason the bride price is so high in parts of China. No telling how many female fetuses were aborted due to that policy and the desire to provide sons for tradition sake. Now they will just have to relax their immigration laws so the Chinese men can import foreign brides to fill the gap since most young single men can never hope to afford the extravagant dowries some families are demanding.