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China officially ends one child policy: state media
[DAWN] China officially ended its one child policy on Sunday with the signing into law of a bill allowing all married couples to have a second child as it attempts to cope with an ageing population and shrinking workforce.Hmmm... Halving your population shrinks your workforce and raises the average age of the population? Who'da thunkit? The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from January 1, the Xinhua news agency reported. It also cuts the number of potential enlistees in the world's largest army by half... All married couples will be allowed to have a second child but the legislation maintains limits on additional births. I think 2.5 or something like that is necessary for population stability, but I guess it is hard to have half a child... The "one child policy", instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China's economic boom and had prevented 400 million births. If the population's halved, I guess there's more money to go around... It has been enforced by a dedicated national commission with a system of fines for violators and often forced abortions, leading to heartrending tales of loss for would-be parents. It would have made more sense to have a commission to plug the extras in where there are shortfalls, but I'm not a communist so I'm obviously wrong... The policy led to sex-selective abortions or infanticide targeting girls, because of a centuries-old social preference for boys. If there aren't enough girls to contribute to the next wave of population growth you come up even shorter... Posted by: Fred 2015-12-28 |
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