What China’s shrinking population means for the future | DW News

There is one resource China has always had enough of – people.
The population graph always used to go up, but that stopped in 2022 and it's projected to go down in future decades. A smaller – and older – population will result in fewer workers. This endangers China's status as the world's manufacturer of cheap goods – and the economic prosperity that comes with it.
China has offered tax incentives and financial support for couples deciding to have more than one child – but researchers don't think policy changes like this will halt the decline in population. They say China appears doomed to struggle with the same demographic challenge facing many countries in the global north.

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[BlueNightZX]

Makes the cost of living extremely high
make home ownership close to impossible
rig the rent market with greedy landlords
make the job market a hellish competitive arena
overwork to death those who manage to get a decent job

wonders why people don't want to have children

[edwardv]

The one child policy wasn’t the only reason for the low birth rate. It’s also urbanization. People living in small urban homes don’t have a lot of kids. No where. Automation won’t solve the problem. It actually generates additional jobs. It just saved job at the targeted industry but creates more need in others.

[movdqa]

Singapore went through the same thing discouraging additional kids and now they want people to have more of them. The US and Europe have this problem as well but people want to move to the US, Europe and Singapore so they can make up the difference with immigration. All China has to do is to make China attractive to immigrants. The current problem is that the government has done a really horrible job of making the country attractive to immigrants.

[guyin]

It's not just that their population is shrinking, but the one child policy resulted in female children being aborted in favor of males. That created an imbalance where the population cannot reproduce at normal rates.

[marufsiddique]

That's why China is heavily investing in AI

[_years_and_]

Shrinkng population means same thing anywhere in the planet - Less pollution, Fresh Air, Clean Water and more Peace .

[avramprimack]

A smaller population means lower impact on water and other resources, less pollution and so on. Smaller population means investment in higher productivity manufacturing, Aging population is a temporary problem. The fear is silly. There are many ways of dealing with this that don't result in disaster.

[Metonymy]

If there is war, go ahead and make that doubly worse

[amanverma]

While china is getting older india will have the advantage of demographic dividend until 2100

[viveviveka]

China has now peaked and is on the downslope, sliding into a whole new scene.

[ortezchambliss]

JUST A REMINDER…..

Civilizations that disappeared

*Indus Valley Civilization
*Çatalhöyük
*Gobekli Tepe
*Aksumite Empire
*Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
*Minoan civilization
*Khmer Empire
*Mississippian culture
*Nabataeans
*Anasazi
*Incas
*Aztecs
*Mayans
*Hopis
* I Ching Ancient civilization

[mimba]

Reduce in human population allows the natural to rejuvenated itself. 30 plus years of growth in industrial without the consideration of how it effected the world. 50% reduces on it's population means more chance for rare plants and animal to survive.

[Bigdogspyke]

“Wanna have kids for a tax break”

I wonder how many of those kids ended up right

[philyhai]

The whole world is overpopulated, not just China or India. Chinese one child policy was tough decision made according limited resources.

[jhrusa]

Peter Zeihan has been saying this for years.

[fabiofboful]

So it seems that the world is running out of slaves right? Our economy model is a shame.

[lawrencekramer]

Demographics have always driven change. The most sustainable, wealthy solution is to shift to a better educated workforce using automation to manufacture goods. The state will have to establish a social support net for the elderly.

[tajmajal]

That's good! Less children, less soldiers in the PLA.

[n.c]

Just in time for AI and Robotics in the next 30 years

[jayren]

World should be better with shrinking population, less energy consumption leading to better climate, weaker military power reducing war risk, ……