Too Late for China to Relax First Child Policy - Literature review Example

Too Late for China to Relax First Child Policy Introduction The one child policy relation is indeed “too little, too late” for china. The one child policy has governed Chinese family for over three decade and the country is facing an increasing aged population compared to emergence of young generation. In addition, there are more men compared to women and it is estimated that by 2020 more men of marriageable age will lack women to marry. Moreover, the one child policy has overburdened children who are caring for their two parents and about four grandparents. The one child policy The 2013 census conducted in china shows that the country had 1.357 billion people (Hutchings, 2003). Apparently, the country has the largest population followed by India. The large population was a threat to china’s economy. For this reason, the government feared the population could lead to drastic fall in their economy. The government decided to implement the first child policy during late 1970. According to the policy, every family in china should have one child only unless the government allowed the family to have more than one child. Those families that the government allowed to have more than one child include the rich families and families that both spouses were the only children in their families. The government allowed the rich families to have the more than one child since they believed the families could support the children regardless if any situation that may occur. They also allowed couples who were the only children in their families to have more than one children since they did want to appear as a government that will destroy the continuation of such a family. However, such a family should agree with the government the number of children they would accommodate. From there the government would have to agree or disagree with their decision. The government will assign the family the specific number of children to have if they disagree with the family decision. The purpose of the first child policy was to ensure the population does not exceed the population the government could accommodate in the future. The population in china was growing rapidly due to factors such as high fertility rates, cultural customs, healthy living and among others. The high population assisted china in becoming a developed nation. The high population provided labor for the industries that were continuously growing. Gradually, the country became developed, and urbanization became the party of their development. Apparently, urbanization and other economic activities have out china among the strongest economies in the world. Ultimately, the county overtook United States as the strongest economy in the universe in October 2014. Factors such as high population contributed highly to the huge economic step. Jao (1985) explains that, the population has been a blessing to the people of China. Apparently, China government viewed the population as a drawback to their growth. The threat led to the overview of the child per family policy. The policy stayed in the country for more than three decades. Apparently, the government failed to assess the impact of the policy. After thirty years, the policy has turned against them. It is for this reason that the government wants to relax the policy. The government has predicted that china will have a drastic drop in their population if the population continues. According to statistics, China would have 600 million people in 2100. In order to avoid such occurrence, the government decided to relax the first child policy and introduce the two-child policy. Rambures (2014) argues that, the two-child policy is similar to the first policy, but the policy assigns families to have two children only. Unfortunately, the government is late to introduce the two policy. The country has adopted the first child policy. Therefore, it would be hard for the administration to change that from people. Moreover, after the introduction of the first policy, the fertility rates reduced. Other factors that make the decision too late are increased gender imbalance, increased working age. In relevance to Vickers (2011), all countries are getting older. The population of each country is increases as the years pass. Every country passes different stages in their growth period. The oldest country in the world is Germany. The country has a median age of 45. The clear pattern is that the young countries are poor while the rich countries are rich. Older countries have more experience than the younger countries when it comes to dealing with aspects such as growing population, education and among others. This explains why the older countries are better compared to the young countries. The two reasons include people’s psychology and the dependency ratio. Peoples psychology: many individuals believe that when a populations ages, they grow frail and loose mentality acuity. The dependency ratio: This assumes that people below age 65 contribute to the society while those above 65 years are a burden to the society. Education has been seen to be a determinant of better health and open-mindedness. An active growing educated population should be seen as an asset rather than a challenge. The Chinese population is educated and relatively productive. Few Chinese retire at the age of 65. Most Chinese will work as long as they are in good health. Population growth should be tied in two dimensions, that is, education and health. Education gives people insight, and it informs them. As a result, people respond to education positively in order to make improvements and develop new ways of doing things. Human health is far much better than education. It is obvious that a healthy man will perform far much better to an unhealthy person regardless of the how the unhealthy man is educated. Increased working population Among the countries in the world, china has the world largest working population. For this reason, most people start working at an early age and stop working at a lower age. During the mid-1990s, the country has working age of 56 percent of working age aged 15 to 64 years. Due to the introduction of the one-child policy, the percentage increased to 76 percent (Hutchings, 2003). The percentage was more than Germany that has 61 percent and is fighting for to reduce it population, which they predict might occur the future. However, china failed to follow other people lessons. The most results that people expect from an increased working population are continuous development in terms of urbanization and economic growth. Apparently, people fail to look at the negative impact they might experience in the future. According to Soled (1995), China government failed to see the negative impact that would lead to an increased working population. The high population in china increased the number of laborers employed in China. Apparently, one child policy increased working population. China preferred male children from female children. They preferred the male children since most of them could work in any position provided they have had the required skills and training. Moreover, it was easier for the male children to work continuously throughout the year without investable leaves that female have such as pregnancy leave. The country enjoyed the high number of men working for the country. As the number of working population increased, the economic developed more and everything else became more expensive (Inc., 2010). For some people, it was easier to afford the increased prices. To others, the prices were too expensive. Apparently, few people among the great number of the working population could afford the ever-increasing prices. Those who could not afford the prices worked to cater for their families. The little they earned was only limited to serve their one wife and children. In addition, the government was paying the working population amount that would only cater for three people in the family. According to the government, they paid employees according to the one child policy. Therefore, there were sure the amount they offered could cater the families. Apparently, when the government introduces the two-child policy, it implies that they would have to increase the amount of the increased working population. Increased salaries to accommodate the tow child policy would mean that the government would have to go back to the banks and pay their workers. Ultimately, it would be hard for the government for the government to go back to the banks and withdraw. Moreover, the amount in the store would not cater for the working age even if they introduce the two-child policy (Greenhalgh, 2008). Introduce the working policy implies that the working age will have to work more for the government to cater for the children who most of them will be unborn. Therefore, even if they introduce the two-child policy, it is too late because the children born will not help the government until they reach an age they can work. What the policy would do is overworking the working age more than what they can deliver. According to the status, the 76 percent of working age was expected to increase as time continues. For this reason, the country would have an increase in working age population. Therefore, most people in the country will be more concerned about working for the country rather that raising other children. However, few people work for the country; most of them work to pay bills. It is for this reason that the working population will ignore the government new policy since it would disrupt they\ir long time budgets. Furthermore, Ching (2009) adds that, the increased number of working population implies that most people in the country are working. Therefore, only a few people will raise families. When the number of working age reach an age where they cannot work anymore or raise families. The government will experience a drop in population as few children are born and most people are dying. If the government wanted to avoid such cases, it would have acted and introduced a two-child policy (Mosher, 1995). Another factor that proofs the government is late is the number of people unable to raise families. Apparently, the only the government can depend on to adhere to their two child policy are those who do not work. Unfortunately, those who do not work are either disable or cannot raise families. For this reason, the government is doomed to experience the consequences of failing to plan. Apparently, most working class after the introduction of the first child policy they were used to working. For this reason, the working class have developed a behavior here they work for their family only. It would be hard to convince such people to work on increasing their family numbers if they have developed the behavior as the government demanded. Most of those who have developed the previous anticipated government behavior will not adhere to the government demands of the two-child policy. Most of them will pass the policy and wait for the next population to adhere to the two-child policy. For this reason, the government prediction will go as they have predicted since they acted late. Cultural barrier When the society leaders introduce new laws to the society, every member of the society will obey the rules. However, might not obey the laws due to their reason. For this reason, the society leaders should explain to such people in order to help them understand the reason they introduced they law. In relevance to China society, Kuhse (2009) notes that, regardless of the number of people who resist the new law, there are those who will follow the law. If those who accept the law are more than those who disagree, the leaders will have to implement the law. When the laws stay in the society for more than thirty years, it implies that everyone has accepted the law, and it is part of them. It is, for this reason that most people will do anything in order to follow the law. Allan (2009) concludes that, most people will avoid disobeying the law for fear of punishment from the leader. Apparently, when leader later on realize they had made a mistake when they introduced the law and decided to do away with the law and introduce another. It might be easy for the leaders to adjust to the new law (Lock, 2009). However, it would be difficult for the society members to avoid the previous law and adjust to the new law. It would be disadvantages to the society since the society are more than the leaders, and they are the ones who do not agree with the newly introduced. Even if the law is of benefit to the society, it will difficult, impossible, or too late for the society members to adjust. China society leaders are the government. The leaders are the position as discussed above. When they introduced one child policy, they wanted to deal with population growth. They explained the importance of the law which society ended up by agreeing with the law. For thirty years, the Chinese followed the policy despite their God-given freedom of having many children, as they would love. However, due to the government insists the Chinese followed the policy. For this reason, the policy became a cultural custom and to some extent, it became a taboo that the society expected people. Therefore, children born after the introduction did not know about previous freedom, of the Chinese. Chener et al. (1988), according to them, having one child is what the society demanded. Most Chinese now have subscribed to what the society considers legal. The government requires the two-child policy to be followed to the letter. Most of them will not follow the government new policy since they would view it as disobeying the society laws (Lock, 2009). It is possible for the government to pass the information to all parts of the country, but it is impossible for the government to lure the people to follow what they expect. If the government wanted to change the law, they could have done more research before introducing a new law that the society considers inappropriate. Currently, families in china believe that having more than one child is inappropriate and punishable. What the government can do to ensure the policy work is introducing the policy to the unborn, which is impossible. Infertility barrier In 1970, the fertility rate in china was 5.8. It was among the country having the well-fertilized women. It is for this reason they had a huge population. After 1970, the fertile rate started reducing rapidly. In 1978, the fertile rate per woman was 2.7. The policy had started to take effect (Sacco, 2003). Most women after having their first child reduced their fertile to permanently infertile. The current fertile status is 1.5 per woman. The rate implies that most women in china have one child and cannot have another. In order to avoid disobeying the society and fines the government inflicts in women who have other children without approval from the government, the women subscribed to surgical procedures that made them permanently infertile. For this reason, they could not get pregnant succeeding in the surgery. Lynch (2015) notes that, the lower rates for women do not mean the women are infertile. Most of them get infertile in order to follow the government laws. For this reason, when the government introduces the second policy only a few women in china will follow the government policy (Sacco, 2003). However, among the fertile women \, not all can carry infants. Some of them are fertile but cannot carry infants due to their religious subscription, disability, preferences and among other factors. Even if the remaining fertile women agree to follow the government, policy too would take a long time before they can provide what the government wants for china. Therefore, when the current infertile women die the left will be children who are few than the one who are going to die. The country will gradually drop their population even faster that they had predicted since some of the fertile women would follow their previous generation laws and preferences. Ratio imbalance The ratio between men and women in a country is important as it allows the government to know how to deal with the population. For instance, if the number of women is more than of women the country government will be producing commodities belonging to women more than those belonging to women. Realizing the ratio is important as it helps to balance between men and women in the society. Apparently, the ratio of women and men should be equal or almost equal. If one gender is, more than the other with a big gap is then the country will be doomed to inequality in terms providing care for the population. It would also be a problem, in terms of controlling the population. Controlling the population is important for a nation since the government will be able to assess the resources economic value and compare it to the population. The importance of comparing the population, resources, and the economic development is to ensure the government will be able to accommodate the population. Accommodating the population does not mean the providing the population with what the population demands (Mackinnon, 2009). Apparently, the population demands a lot from the government. However, the demands of the population vary. The women demands vary from the demands from men. It would hard for a government to provide for the population demand if one gender is more than the other is. Conclusion The revision of the one child policy has been welcomed as a good move for the world second largest economy. However, there are those who warn that increasing family size is dangerous for the country compared to a decreased population. Demographer argues that it over burden the government to have huge population. Because of high population, there is an increased social service as well as increase in unemployment. Thus, the change of policy controlling the size of family has advantages as well as disadvantages at the same time. Reference Allan., T. (2009). Virtual water: tackling the threat to our planets most precious resource. W.p, I.B. Tauris & Co. Chenery, H. B., Srinivasan, T. N., Behrman, J. 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