Condom tax and cheaper childcare: China's plan to boost birth rates

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Condom tax and cheaper childcare: China's plan to boost birth rates​

Weird when years ago they clamped down on having kids and now China is one of the most expensive countries in the world to raise a sprog.

www.bbc.co.uk

China's plan to boost birth rates with condom tax and cheaper childcare

Chinese people pay a 13% sales tax on contraceptives from 1 January, while childcare services are exempt.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
The weird thing is that it took them far too long to reverse their one-child policy. For many years, they unofficially failed to enforce it in rural areas, where traditional family and farming life made it pretty much essential to have several children.

China, like many countries, has changed beyond recognition, it is now horrifically expensive to live in urban areas and most apartments are far too small for more than one child, and people simply cannot afford larger living spaces, so increasing their population will be a real problem for them.

Also, the normal solution to population shortage is to encourage immigration, but foreigners are simply not welcome in China, only citizens are allowed to go to state schools and to access their excellent health service.
 
I do wonder if, in rural areas, it is still commonplace to abandon female babies to die, in order to favour male babies?
 
lindsay said:
I do wonder if, in rural areas, it is still commonplace to abandon female babies to die, in order to favour male babies?
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The stupider a tradition is, the harder you have to work to change it... :(
 
lindsay said:
I do wonder if, in rural areas, it is still commonplace to abandon female babies to die, in order to favour male babies?
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AFAIK, this only occurred in the very early days of the one-child policy. The authorities then started to turn a blind eye when the child was a girl, and allowed people to keep having babies until they ended up with a boy, and then eventually they turned a blind eye to more than one boy in rural areas. In urban areas, people were allowed to have more than one child but had to pay 1/3rd of their total assets to the government as a kind of fine.
 
@Garry Edwards sounds about right; but it was common practice pre-revolution certainly too, across China and Korea. Baby girls' bodies were regularly fished out of Hong Kong harbour in the old days, having been washed down the Pearl River from the Guangdong countryside. Adults too, mind you, opium addicts and victims of vendettas etc.
 
The future is not looking good for China and they know it also India
 
I used to have a Chinese GF and have continued to follow events in China. One whisper is that their population is nothing like what the official stats state and is much lower. They seem generally to have massive issues. Communism failing? Again? Who'd have thunk it?
 
I don't know why they didn't take a leaf out of Starmer's book and give them child benefits for every child that they have.
 
How stupid. Even if they made condoms £10 each it would still be far cheaper to pay that than have another kid. Who is going to suggest having another kid to avoid a few quid on condoms?
 
woof woof said:
I used to have a Chinese GF and have continued to follow events in China. One whisper is that their population is nothing like what the official stats state and is much lower. They seem generally to have massive issues. Communism failing? Again? Who'd have thunk it?
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i suspect its not communism failing as more global consumerism winning , young chinese people are seeing the rest of the world on the internet and they want a piece like every other young person does, young people now don't see marriage and children as the end result of there lives they want money, things, travel etc and when they eventually decided its time to have kids the best they can do is fire a spoiled brat out but just the one.
 
Can't speak for China but having kids and bringing them up is hard with constant fiscal drag to deal with. Year on year we are getting a pay cut with degrading standards of living (which is pretty basic, I buy tesco branded cereals already :p )

Given the current fertility rate in the UK and negative views of immigration, I think we are headed in a similar direction. So easy to point and criticise but should be taking it as a warning call
 
nandbytes said:
Can't speak for China but having kids and bringing them up is hard with constant fiscal drag to deal with. Year on year we are getting a pay cut with degrading standards of living (which is pretty basic, I buy tesco branded cereals already :p )

Given the current fertility rate in the UK and negative views of immigration, I think we are headed in a similar direction. So easy to point and criticise but should be taking it as a warning call
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yep 100% and government just don't get it until it is way to late same in the UK but the realisation is it is not the govs fault
it is simply couples just don't want to start families any more
 
I'm not sure that anyone has produced what can be seen as a viable alternative to the old model that states if you aren't growing then you're losing. We can see that it's beneficial for populations to shrink somewhat, but in a gradual fashion, managing national finances and output. War used to provide a bit of a reset button, but that's not acceptable now.
 
Mr Bump said:
yep 100% and government just don't get it until it is way to late same in the UK but the realisation is it is not the govs fault
it is simply couples just don't want to start families any more
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Because it's unaffordable do so :(

ancient_mariner said:
I'm not sure that anyone has produced what can be seen as a viable alternative to the old model that states if you aren't growing then you're losing. We can see that it's beneficial for populations to shrink somewhat, but in a gradual fashion, managing national finances and output. War used to provide a bit of a reset button, but that's not acceptable now.
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There are still surprising amount of wars/conflicts around the world.
Regardless not a great reset button in many ways but not to mention it generally kills the people who are probably in their most productive ages.
Not a fan.

At this point maintaining replacement rate would be nice but we are not. No where close.
Even countries like India are falling behind on their replacement rate.

Given this is a worldwide problem, I'm thinking of investing in companies that make nappies for old people now, it'll be the booming industry in 20 years :ROFLMAO:
 
nandbytes said:
There are still surprising amount of wars/conflicts around the world.
Regardless not a great reset button in many ways but not to mention it generally kills the people who are probably in their most productive ages.
Not a fan.
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Not a fan either, but if you wipe out half the reproductive population in a 4 year period it reduces population growth for a while.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Not a fan either, but if you wipe out half the reproductive population in a 4 year period it reduces population growth for a while.
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Logically yes, but didn't we get the opposite effect following the 2nd WW? That (my) generation is called the baby boomers for a reason.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I don't know if "surprising" is how I'd describe it but you're quite right that there's a lot of it going around; in fact, it's business as usual for "the masters of war", as Bob Dylan put it...

en.wikipedia.org

List of ongoing armed conflicts - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Not sure what the right word is and that map makes me depressed every time I come across. So perhaps "depressing" is a way to describe it.

Affects me a lot... once again one more reason not to bring more (little) people into this world.
 
I see a global decline in population coming that is quite obvious and the writing is clearly there now.
people just are not driven by old school values anymore , the one child western family is the new norm and to be fair
i don't blame people for doing that at all, you are only on this planet once do what you want with the time i say :-)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Logically yes, but didn't we get the opposite effect following the 2nd WW? That (my) generation is called the baby boomers for a reason.
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There's naturally a flurry of births after soldiers return home - I'm about the last of the boomers.
 
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