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China's problem is a universal problem. They're "communist" in name only. Their economy has capitalist demands for growth/metastasis, same as ours and most developed economies.

People want to have kids when they can expect those kids to live at minimum the same quality, and preferably better quality, than they themselves did and do. That just isn't the case anymore as the global economy has run out of massive new sectors for growth/metastasis and has begun eating itself. You can see this in all the entire sectors here merging into monopolies and duopolies. Constant merging isn't a business strategy, it's just trying to buy time in a failing economic model.

Capitalism has always been a long-term pyramid scheme to concentrate all the power/wealth/means/capital to a small owner class. The problem is, the con has run out of new places and ways to exploit people as you eventually can't squeeze more out of a fully exploited stone. No pensions, laughable pay, no future. Just expected to thanklessly generate capital for the owners in larger and larger quantities for the love of what? The nation trying to commoditize your entire life to profit the right people? Why would you bring another poor, desperate child to suffer such a world?

Now, in their desperation, these economies that lead their societies and governments around by the nose are desperately screaming "MORE LIVESTOCK TO EXPLOIT GOD DAMN IT!" because in lieu of not being able to squeeze any harder on existing capital batteries without being correctly told to 'get fucked,' that's all they have.

I firmly believe that is why the federalist society that runs our SCOTUS is trying to get abortion banned, as the most profitable capital batteries are desperate, poor ones. I also believe the intentional decline of our public education system is meant to address the same problem, if they can make the population stoooopid enough not to consider the lives the children of already struggling peasants would have.

This world is finite. Its resources finite. An economic model literally based on infinite continuous growth/metastasis or die is not compatible with the world as it is. In every sense, it is killing us, whether by climate change from without, and loss of actual personal meaning within, at least for the non-winning vast majority. The goal of global economics should have been to establish a sustainable population that could find equilibrium/homeostasis with our shared, COMMUNal environment we all rely on from one breath to the next. Not a lot of room for Super Yachts and private jets in such a world though...

Governments and companies have gotten by in the past with a combination of factors:

• Religion pressuring people into marrying and having children.

• Poverty and poor education causing people to have children they weren’t prepared for. Includes lack of access to birth control and discouraging its use.

• One income households made it feasible to raise large families when times were good. The rich have since siphoned off all economic growth while real wages have stagnated.

Having children is an unpaid job. If the government wants people to have children, it should start paying for it. Or, the wealthy will need to stop hoarding all the wealth and let regular people earn enough to support a family on one income again.

In the meantime, people should feel justified and good about not reproducing. The planet is already pushed to its breaking point. More humans will consume more resources and emit more CO2.

I have several very close friends who are Chinese. Some from near Shanghai some from near Beijing. The reason they explain is much more cultural and not capitalist as some here suggest.

For one, it is extremely rough on women because young men act very spoiled and men in general have an abusive problem there. So they don’t want to have kids with these men and they don’t want to marry them either. Women are getting married much later with it not being completely unheard of to be 30 and unmarried anymore in China.

Second, it is also hard on women because of family. When they get married the man’s family is their new family essentially and they lose support from their blood family. This can be tough especially if the husbands family hates the woman (not that rare).

Third, divorce is still rare because of the culture of stick through it and be a good wife. Divorce is also hard when you have kids and there’s a lot of pressure to have kids right away when you get married. This is changing but it’s slow.

Finally, we arrive at feminism. This is a good change and women are realizing all the cultural problems and see they can be happier on their own and make big money on their own too. So why get married, why have kids when you can be happy by yourself?

So all in all it’s not bad changes, these are cultural changes most countries go through and I’m happy for the Chinese women and hope all goes well. If you have any questions or want me to elaborate just let me know.

Put women in the workforce but keep the societal expectation of having them do all the housework, child rearing, cooking, cleaning, etc.

Gee I wonder why they don’t want to engage in that social contract anymore, and that doesn’t even cover how fucking expensive it is to even have one kid

From the 1 child policy to this?

Honestly kind of happy for China for a change, this is a pretty big indication of women's rights that they're able to say No to begin with. I hope they continue to resist and eventually cause a larger change for the better across the region.

It says a lot about where we're at in humanity. Child-bearing-aged humans the world over want children less than ever before.

Something's fucking wrong.

I think low birth rates are a product of a demanding system. In many cases it's economic suicide to even entertain the idea of having children.

The allure of DINKs and solo living is too strong even when developed countries started to get really developed earlier on.

Ah yes, "a threat to be eliminated" is surely a stance that will get women on board with child-bearing.

China could probably stand to spend some time not having an extremely strong stance on babies.

Why would anyone want kids while they can't afford anything with no kids? If they want people to have kids, they better help them financially. You can't have a child and leave them for strangers to raise them at daycares. Or have the mother sit home and the dad works 3 jobs to put food on the table. Fuck that.

I hate to do this, but I feel like Taiwan(numba 1) is doing this better than China(numba 4).

The Taiwan government is literally giving money to have kids. The more kids you have, the more monthly cash they give you. I think our president said something along the lines of "it's up to our country to take care of all children of Taiwan". I'm paraphrasing.

Not just cash, we also have infrastructure setup. Most malls, government buildings and public places have breastfeeding rooms. There is almost always a bathroom designated for people with children. There are even bathrooms set up with small tiny toilets. There is a designated area for kids to sit on the train. There are designated elevators for kids.

Plus healthcare is free/cheap so that helps.

If China wants more babies, it needs to start giving the people things that promote having kids. Unless you force them to have kids.... I guess because you can. Fuck the CCP.

Russia is the same. Nobody wants to immigrate to those countries. Wonder why.

China’s population, now around 1.4 billion, is likely to drop to just around half a billion by 2100, according to some projections. Women are taking the blame.

It does take two to tango.

Loving this child free wave

If there's one thing I know about the Chinese Communist Party, it's that they take rejection and defiance in stride. At least this isn't anything as dangerous as hunger strikes and students assembling in public squares so maybe they can save a little gas money on tanks and pressure washers this time around.

I've seen a bunch of comments expressing interest in the population declining. Since I don't really want the Thanos approach, lowering the birth rate is great.

I propose sterilization for cash, like cash for clunkers. You get a bunch of free money if you decide you want fixed.

Think of the amount of people who'd take that deal. Long term, lower population, less social program spending, hopefully less people's wanting abortions, win win. It goes against the rich people need for more workers, but you can dangle the lower welfare receipts, they'll be all about that. 😋

Sorry, morbid humor among actual socioeconomic conversation.

Increase education rates, reduce poverty, and give women more rights = fertility goes down. This is a good thing in theory, but society has to change its approach to designing the economy to handle a declining population.