In 1979, China passed possibly the most intrusive and abhorrent law in human history, and enforced it on its own population. The “One Child Policy” it was aimed at keeping China’s population growing at a manageable rate with a goal of keeping its population at 1.2 billion by the year 2000. Its 2000 population was actually 1.26 billion. This law was strictly and sometimes brutally enforced.
It has been announced China has modified the law to allow two children per couple. This is in response to an aging population and the need to increase the working population to support them. Simple mathematical projections made it obvious that retirees will massively outnumber active workers within 3 to 4 generations if the policy continued.
It has been applied unevenly, strictly enforced on 36% of the population, an additional 53% of the population is allowed a second child if the first is a girl. In Chinese culture where multiple generations often share the same living quarters, a male usually stays with his parents, whereas a female goes to live with her husband when married. Having only a girl leaves the parents unsupported in their old age. This resulted in a huge imbalance in the male/female population, as parents often aborted girls to attempt to have a male child.
This law has been credited with ensuring over 400 million Chinese children were not born.
Author’s note: The “Malthusian Problem” is a well-known theory in demographic science, saying in effect “population expands to consume all available resources, checked by war famine and disease.” It is a frightening proposition and has been shown to be accurate in history and still in today’s third world. However, it has become obvious in the U.S., Europe and Japan that prosperity and security lead to slower population growth, since children are no longer a retirement necessity.
The crux of this is Asia and the Middle East are growing but not modernizing quickly enough to overcome the Malthusian Problem. We currently see and will continue to see masses dying in wars, populations dying of starvation and possible outbreaks of disease. The most frightening prospect is three massive populations, India, China and the Islamic nations going to war over resources.
American tend not to be able to tolerate the levels of suffering anticipated in the future. So we will be involved.