China got rid of the one child policy in 2015, and saw an expected hike in newborns in 2016, but now there has been a large decrease in new borns. Families have indicated that they are no longer having a second child because of the financial burden. Now there is concern about a baby crisis in China, which could in turn effect future policies. The article explains that the implication of this baby crisis could lead future underemployment due to a demographic time bomb. Consequences of this demographic time bomb could lead to less innovation and entrepreneurism. Policymakers have considered lowering taxes for larger families. However, I am not sure that solution will fix the problem. I am curious to see what other strategies China might implement to increase reproduction and I also wonder what other consequences might come from this demographic time bomb.
7 comments:
In addition to lowering taxes for large families I believe the government should be giving incentives or subsidies for women on maternity leave or for stay at home parents to support those roles that are typically looked over and not considered important.
Those are definitely some incentives the government should consider. I think one of the largest financial burdens parents are facing is the cost of education in china. Perhaps families that have more than one kid should be given extra funds towards education.
Recently studies have shown that the more educated people are, the more career focused they are, they tend to have lesser children. The article talks about how even before the consideration of tax rebates, China had fairly generous policies for maternal leave (161 days) and in some provinces, even paternal leave for up to a month. This goes to show that it may not be the policies, perhaps not even the expenses, people just might not want more than one child.
I think there's also a strong cultural legacy left behind by the one-child policy, which was in place for almost 35 years, and that people may not want large families. I would also be interested to see if China's social safety nets ended up helping disabled children more - congenital disabilities are still largely stigmatized, and many children born with disabilities end up in orphanages.
China has the world's largest population with over 1.3 billion people. On an interesting note, they have a large problem with a gender imbalance, as there are a lot more women than men in the country. This could potentially have an effect on the growth rate of population and the economy in the future.
Like Nate mentioned, the fact that the gender imbalance is go great in China will greatly affect China's population growth in the future. The one child policy will hinder China greatly in the future.
Even though they are economically thriving, China's cultural values and beliefs are much more inward facing, static, and established in the past than those of most Western countries. I was adopted because of the one child policy and I know that those beliefs are still so deeply ingrained in the minds of many that there may not be a straightforward solution. Girls were not valued or wanted and I think that remains a strong belief today. And while there is a large imbalance of gender due to years and years of the one child law, there is also an economic imbalance of lifestyle between urban and rural populations. What I mean by this is that the country is fairly divided by technologically advanced city living and deeply rooted ancestral traditions. Basically, half of China is moving at a faster pace than the other half, and this will hinder any type of solution process because it's obviously harder to please everyone.
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