China demographics thread.
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China launches projects to build 'new-era' marriage, childbearing culture
China will launch pilot projects in more than 20 cities to create a "new-era" marriage and childbearing culture to foster a friendly child bearing environment, the latest move by authorities to boost the country's falling birth rate.China's Family Planning Association, a national body that implements the government's population and fertility measures, will launch the projects to encourage women to marry and have children, state backed Global Times reported on Monday.
HONG KONG, May 15 (Reuters) - China will launch pilot projects in more than 20 cities to create a "new-era" marriage and childbearing culture to foster a friendly child bearing environment, the latest move by authorities to boost the country's falling birth rate.
China's Family Planning Association, a national body that implements the government's population and fertility measures, will launch the projects to encourage women to marry and have children, state backed Global Times reported on Monday.
Promoting marrying, having children at appropriate ages, encouraging parents to share child-rearing responsibilities, and curbing high "bride prices" and other outdated customs are the focus of the projects, the Times said.
Cities included in the pilot include the manufacturing hub Guangzhou and Handan in China's Hebei province. The association already launched projects in 20 cities including Beijing last year, the Times said.
"The society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth," demographer He Yafu told the Times.
The projects come amid a flurry of measures Chinese provinces are rolling out to spur people to have children, including tax incentives, housing subsidies, and free or subsidised education for having a third child.
China implemented a rigid one-child policy from 1980 until 2015 - the root of many of its demographic challenges that have allowed India to become the world's most populous nation. The limit has since been raised to three children.
Concerned about China's in six decades and its , the government's proposed in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and IVF treatment, among other services to boost the country's fertility rate.
Many women have been put off having more children or any at all due to the expense of child care and having to stop their careers, with gender discrimination still a key hurdle.
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They need to guide young Chinese linea recta to the bed for sexy time without a condom or pill. Unbelievable. There have been zero countries succeeding with lifting their fertility rate. Zero. It seems a task impossible.
I noticed how none of them include this one thing: increase taxation. We all know taxation incentives, good paternity/maternity leaves and etc aren’t enough as we have seen in other countries. We also know that the young adults just want to enjoy their lives and so f**k all to society. That means they do have the disposable income. So why not just increase the tax as well when a certain age limit has been hit, such as 35 and lower the taxes for people below the age limit to allow them to accumulate wealth and do enjoy their lives? I’m sure this will trigger the youngsters here, but if you can couple this with a universal income for the parents, extremely low taxes for those who marry and have kids, and have good paternity/maternity laws, that might work.
Not sure how much this will help, considering that birth rates tend to have an inverse relationship with income.
That’s most likely due to the high costs of raising a child to be successful and getting them into college. My proposition is really dependent on how much the government is willing to subsidize such costs and how much they are willing to tax those who just want to “enjoy life forever” and leech off those who work. It’s based on a multi-disciplinary perspective rather than a purely economic one.
According to this article they are specifically targeting women. I am curious about the concrete policies that will be implemented.
Some of that sounds pretty good.
As long as it isn't just brainless "financial incentives" to have children like we've seen fail in the west.
Well, these are ultimately economic arguments.
In my opinion, the root cause of birth rate decline is the change in social norms. I don't want to echo right-wing punditry by calling it a "breakdown" of traditional social values, but it is certainly a change. Specifically, the formation of family units, i.e. marriage. Here is a that's helpful.
In my opinion, and I want to underline that this is my opinion, not backed by more than a cursory interest in the subject, is that the decline in birth rates is caused by increasingly higher burden of society upon young people. To be a "good" husband, you have to be educated, make a decent salary, be of sufficiently "good character", and a host of other requirements.
All this, while the pre-requisites to accomplish all of those things are rising higher and higher. Now, you have to finish a 4 year college, possibly finish even more education if you want to "guarantee" that high salary through specializations like an M.D, J.D., Ph.D... To say nothing of "life experience" which is hard to accomplish when you are buried neck-deep in studies.
And for the women? Well, it's possibly even worse. Women are expected to choose "good" partners which necessitates being picky. Moreover, women are expected to be attractive, educated, and capable of being to contribute both professionally and domestically through being able to cook, host, and raise children. While educational and professional requirements are most likely lesser than those demanded of potential husbands, the extra requirements outside of those are possibly even greater! And they have to learn and accomplish all of those things while still being relatively young. Unlike men, women have an "expiration date", and I'm sorry if it offends someone, but that's the biological and social reality.
Now sure, plenty of women do get all of those things done, but I hardly fault women who want to live a little and either do not get married or simply do not accomplish everything they "need to"
And that's in United States, I don't know how much worse or better it is in China, but considering the hyper-competitive economic environment there, I can't imagine that the social demands are any lower.
All of this puts off children for years. And very little of it has to do with the direct costs of raising children, in my opinion of course.
I don't think you will be able to force people to have kids just off economic incentives. If European countries are having the same issue despite generous pro-natalism policies and a generally high standard of living for the majority of the population, pulling the same levers in China will have the same limited effect.