There are cruel side effects to the one-child policy. There are also cruel side effects to our abortion-friendly policies here in Canada, but that’s the whole point of this blog. More on China specifically, here.

Even if the one-child policy had not had such cruel side effects, there would be good reason for abandoning it. Once a young society, China is aging fast. Demographers say it is the first country to grow old before growing rich.

I don’t think we are as outraged by this policy as we ought to be. Perhaps we’ve heard about it for too long, and it no longer takes hold. Women in China have employers checking their cycles and other such nonsense. I have a book on my table here called Population Control, by Steven Mosher, which I intend to read just as soon as I can. Whether China or Canada, we have to move away from this idea that people are a burden.