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China allows couples to have three children

bbc.com

1–10 of 339 posts

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#3
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

I imagine there’s entire departments of people dedicated to managing this program. Probably dedicated party members. I don’t think they could take their titles away and reorganize them without starting a lot of infighting.

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#4
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

TFA talks about this, saying they fear a child number explosion in poor rural areas.

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#5
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

Not sure how to put it....

Have you been following the main news from China in recent years?

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#6
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

When I see how our governments evolve I always compare global restrictions to similar processes in multicellular organisms.

Cell division is globally and locally restricted in the body in ways single cellular organisms aren't. We have "growth hormone" which encourages or suppresses division at certain periods of life and even certain periods of day and night.

And uncontrolled growth we call "tumors" and "cancer" and it leads to the rapid decline and death of the multicellular organism, and with that, the death of all those cancer cells as well.

So who knows what the future holds. Maybe that's not a China thing. Maybe it's a society thing, that we've not wised up to yet.

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#7
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

I imagine there’s entire departments of people dedicated to managing this program. Probably dedicated party members. I don’t think they could take their titles away and reorganize them without starting a lot of infighting.

It could also be that they see no scenario ahead where they want the average number of children per woman to be above 3. I don't think China wants back to exponential growth ever. They probably want to find their equilibrium.

Consider if something unlikely happens that completely changes the dynamic of families, e.g. a cultural shift where women stay more at home and have more babies. If the average family started having more than 3 children, they would consider bringing back this system, which could cause big social problems, as it costs more social capital to bring back an unpopular system than to simply maintain it.

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#8
post #2

It feels strange to me why they're not just getting rid of the limit at this point. Especially since they already seem to have trouble getting couples to have two children.

TFA talks about this, saying they fear a child number explosion in poor rural areas.

This is a big factor, but poor rural areas usually just blatantly ignore child number limits anyway. So, unlikely to be the sole reason.

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine there’s entire departments of people dedicated to managing this program. Probably dedicated party members. I don’t think they could take their titles away and reorganize them without starting a lot of infighting.

It could also be that they see no scenario ahead where they want the average number of children per woman to be above 3. I don't think China wants back to exponential growth ever. They probably want to find their equilibrium. Consider if something unlikely happens that completely changes the dynamic of families, e.g. a cultural shift where women stay more at home and have more babies. If the average family started ha…

China may not be as concerned about uncontrolled population growth anymore due to their broader strategy of exporting their workforce:

https://qz.com/africa/1963566/how-many-chinese-workers-are-t...

Re: China allows couples to have three children

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine there’s entire departments of people dedicated to managing this program. Probably dedicated party members. I don’t think they could take their titles away and reorganize them without starting a lot of infighting.

It could also be that they see no scenario ahead where they want the average number of children per woman to be above 3. I don't think China wants back to exponential growth ever. They probably want to find their equilibrium. Consider if something unlikely happens that completely changes the dynamic of families, e.g. a cultural shift where women stay more at home and have more babies. If the average family started ha…

> I don't think China wants back to exponential growth ever.

Any policy defined in terms of "X children per couple" or "X children per woman" is, by definition, exponential growth.

When X is 3, it's very rapid exponential growth.

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