One No Longer

The Chinese government announced today that it is ending its one child policy and changing instead to a two children policy.  For the last forty years, Chinese couples have been limited to having just one child with few exceptions.  The result has been terrible for China.  Parents who wanted a son have aborted so many female babies that there is not a major imbalance between the sexes of younger Chinese generations.  That means that literally millions of Chinese men will have no chance to get a wife or have a family.  It is a major social problem.

An even more important evil outcome to the policy has been the rapid aging of China's population.  As the older generations have not even produced new generations of the same size as the previous one, the percentage of older people started growing.  It was a slow shift at first, but then it accelerated.  Today, China faces a shortage of workers.  Soon, there will be too many elderly for the fewer numbers of young people to support.  The shift to a two child policy won't have any effect on this problem for decades.

Obviously, the one child policy was a major intrusion into the lives of ordinary people by a totalitarian communist state.  Even aside from the implications of the policy for individual liberties, this government action is one of the most idiotic moves by any government in the last century.