Recently (31 May) the Chinese government announced that they would be lifting the maximum number of children a couple could have from 2 to 3. Vox Day hailed this as proof that the Chinese have chosen life with carrots and sticks to follow. Other commentators have been more circumspect, allowing that the policy has softened but that the Chinese are unlikely to a) change behaviour and b) that it would make a difference anyway. The largest cohort of Chinese is about to enter retirement. They are too old to have babies themselves. The cohorts under them are the product of the one child policy. They have been brought up as princes. Bringing up a child is expensive in terms of both money and time. To bring up more than one would fill the average modern Chinese with dread. I met some Chinese touring Australia back in the 1980s. My family is very large by anyone's standards. The Chinese looked at us in horrified wonder. A family with 8-9 children was not something to emulate. I'm guessing that attitude has only hardened in the years since then.
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