WEBVTT - What is China's one-child policy? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.520 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.319 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.120 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.159 Charles W. Chuckers Bryant. You know, one day I'm just 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.200 not going to show up. I'll do both of our bits. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.320 I'll be like, hey, I'm Josh, Hey, I'm Chuck. Hey, 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.880 I'm Josh. Hey, I'm Chuck. I think it's pretty accurate. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.280 Good luck with that shows good luck although I finally 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.000 get to be shirtless the whole time. Are you ready 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.280 for a little bit of irony this this afternoon? Yeah, 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.840 let's hear it um. Back in nine okay short, little 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:55.200 six years before Ghostbusters, Apple cheeked No. Thirty five? Uh short, 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.360 little happy apple cheeked Chinese man named Mal's a Dung, 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.560 also known as Chairman Mao, established the People's Republic of 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.280 China Z yes and uh. One of the things that 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.080 they were um big on was reproduction. I guess it's 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.880 the only way to put in okay um. The the 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:18.520 communist government under Chairman Mao UM they opposed birth control. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:23.240 They banned the import of contraceptives, and in in forty 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.360 nine he said, of all the things in the world, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.479 people are the most precious. Ready for the ironic twist? Yes, 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:35.760 thirty years later, China catapulted itself to the forefront of 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.320 state controlled reproduction, which what came to be known as 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.640 its one child policy. Discuss you know what, I got 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.000 a little stat for your speaking. In the life expectancy 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.080 in China was then like seven thirty five years old. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.000 Holy cow, and it's seventy three years old now. Yeah, 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.760 with the with the communist government came things like sanitation, 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:04.320 relative peace. War had had beleaguered China for generations, had 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.120 been killing people left and right, and as a result, 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:12.480 the population just skyrocketed. Indeed, and the old image of 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.920 China that we have is probably like four or five kids, 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.800 a couple of parents, a couple of grandparents, and auntie 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.800 and uncle like packed together living in a house. Not 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.840 true anymore, No, not anymore because of the one child policy. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.240 So let's talk about this. This is something people might 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.320 have heard of before. But first of all, why did 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.399 it come about. It came about from the population skyrocketing, right. Well, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.280 I've got some more info actually, are you ready for this? 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.720 You want to know how it really came about? Yeah, 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:46.400 you didn't look at any of this, I song Jianne. No, okay, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.280 all right, we're all gonna learn here. Then let's hear 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:54.200 Mr Smart. Apparently there was a system's control specialist in China. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.800 He decides to visit Europe and back then, um, he 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.119 was kind of isolated from the outside world, like many 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.959 of the people in China, the intellection known for isolation. Yeah, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:08.880 so he goes to Europe and he picks up a 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:10.880 little book called The Limits to Growth. Have you ever 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.240 heard of this? The Limits of Growth was a really 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.720 controversial book um to study put out by a think 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.160 tank called the Club of Rome, and basically they said, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.480 in a nutshell the world will end by because of 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:29.000 population overrun and uh. They brought it out to big 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.960 fanfare along with The Blueprint for Survival, which was published 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.040 in seventy two in England, who basically said that people 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.880 in Britain were reproducing too quick and they couldn't maintain Uh. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:42.920 He goes back to China with these books and he said, 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.240 you know, it really made sense to me, and so 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.080 he was connected. He formed a little group. Uh, and 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.880 decided to take it to the government and said, hey, 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.160 we're gonna you know, he started applying these studies and 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.160 these statistics to China and said, we're in big trouble. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.600 And so he took all this stuff and basically it 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.400 was from there that it leap frogged, uh, that it 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:11.040 catapulted rather into a reality. However, the ironic thing is 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.520 is that whole limits to growth Apparently it was a 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.640 bunch of bunk and it was based on bad statistics. 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.920 And the co founder, I'm sorry, the founder of the 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.800 Book of Rome, who actually helped write the book, came 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.240 out a couple of years later and they had a 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.320 retraction that said they wanted to jolt people from the 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.719 comfortable idea that present growth trends could continue indefinitely. So 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:34.760 they basically said, we were trying to scare people, and 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.279 we cooked up a bunch of studies which led to 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.200 China's one child policy. That's pretty cool. That's not the 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.920 only thing, though, I think um China has uh never 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.640 apologized for its policy and one of the reasons why 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.960 they instituted it was because the population was growing rapidly UM, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.280 which is fine, right. That the reason that chairman MoU 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.400 Is like reproduced, reproduced was because his vision for China was, uh, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:08.960 this huge booming economy based on tons and tons of labor. Right, 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:10.320 it kind of makes sense in a way, it does 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.720 make sense. The problem is, right now China has a 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.960 quarter of the world's population but only seven percent of 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.320 the world's arable land. That's that's that is a rub 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.800 right there. Um. So one of the one of the reasons, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.360 in addition to this fake book that the institute the 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.520 one child policy was to slow this population growth, right, 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.159 and it worked tremendously, right it did, you know at 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.640 ninth Well it worked to the team of about four 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.520 hundred million kids not born, Is that right? It depends 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.440 on who you talk to. Four millions the high end 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.120 that I've seen. The lowest i've seen is two d 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.560 and fifty million. Even still, that's substantial since in the 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:48.880 last thirty years, you know, they said in nineteen eighty 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.159 was the the what's it officially called the National Population 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.719 and Family Planning Commission of China, the state agency that 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.760 runs the reproduction control They said in nineteen eighty that 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.120 we must have a cap in the by the year 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.000 two thousand of one point two billion people, and uh, 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.560 it's projected that they had one point to seven. They 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.960 weren't too far off, but that's Chinese figures, and continue 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.880 to grow. Now there's one point three three actually in 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:16.920 more than that, because that was two thousand eight. Yeah, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.279 apparently every year China adds the population of Belgium to 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.800 its own population ten million people. They literally bring over 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.560 everyone from Belgium. Come on, and then Belgium has to 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.839 start from scratch again. They get to ten million, and 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.120 every January, come on, Belgium, I'm gonna go to Belgium. 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.880 Next January. You can go, free trip trip to China. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.880 Well now, so I can stick my claim there in Belgium. Okay, 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.919 just moving too, somehow move you to China eventually, chuck. So, okay, 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:48.280 we have this huge population explosion. It's still going just 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.320 because if you have one point three billion people, even 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.440 allowing them to have one kid is going to add 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.880 an add an add up. What's the projection. I believe 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.080 by twenty there expected to peak at one point six billion. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:08.400 That is a lot um. But actually that's nothing compared 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.000 to what it would have been had they not instituted 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.840 this policy, which at first was voluntary um, and they 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:20.640 saw a greater decline in um for fertility UM when 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.960 this policy was voluntary. Right in nineteen seventy they had 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.520 a fertility rate of I think six and by nine 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.520 means six births per one woman, just so people understand 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.240 what that means. That's the mean um. And then by 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.720 nineteen seventy nine it was down to three. So they 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.440 have their fertility rate, you know, it is now what 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.080 uh in the urban areas one point seven I'm sorry, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.920 in the urban areas one point three and the rural 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.920 areas two point out for about a one point seven average, right, 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.000 but even still, if you look at the numbers, that's 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.480 less of a decline than there was when it was voluntary. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.600 China started out with was a campaign called what chuck 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.400 late long, few, late long and few. So you marry 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.640 late in life, you wait a long time in between births, 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:16.320 and you have few children. Uh, And couples who uh 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.720 volunteer for this get a little certificate. What's that called 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:25.040 the Certificate of Honor for single child parents? Ye must 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.920 be nice, I guess having a came it depends, I 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.679 don't know. Um. We should also say that the one 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.360 child policy that was instituted in nineteen seventy nine. I 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:38.520 don't know if we actually came out and said that yet. Yeah, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.640 that was when it officially became a mandate. So the 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.480 one child policy, um, at least at first and generally 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:51.600 in practice has been has restricted almost exclusively the Han 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.520 ethnic majority. Those are the people who are really subject 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.880 to one child policies, and the people who are under 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:04.680 the most risk astrictions are urban couples from the Han 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.960 majority ethnic minorities are allowed to have more kids. They've 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.480 generally been excluded from the one child policy. Well, you 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:14.360 have to get permission. I think if you're in the 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.040 Royal area, you have to get legal permission to have 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:20.240 a second child, if your firstborn as a girl, and 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.480 if you're an ethnic minority, you can have three kids. Well, 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.640 you bring up a really good point. Um. That's one 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:30.240 of the huge byproducts this, uh, this one child policy, 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.840 is that there China, the culture of China, not just 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.360 the government, the culture has been accused of preferring boys 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:42.160 over girls, to the tune of encouraging abortions for females 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.680 stuff like that. You know that's true, but that's it is. Yeah, Um, 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.320 at the very least, there's been tons and tons of 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.280 reports and allegations that, uh, there's actually if state pressure, 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.520 if not state mandated abortions UM or at the very 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.960 at least local mandated, local pressured abortions UM. But one 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.520 of the one of the ways China still um hasn't 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.120 a low abortion rate of the female population report having 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.280 an abortion. Where in the US forty three, that's higher 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:21.439 than I thought. That's apparently really low, is it? Yeah, um, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.960 at the very least low compared to anecdotal evidence. There's 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.080 probably a lot of girls out there who aren't willing 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.439 to say that they had an abortion in half UM. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.200 But still, let's say that those numbers are completely accurate. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.719 China has abortion rate the US has forty three. One 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:40.680 of the reasons that they've been able to maintain a 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:46.880 low abortion rate comparatively UM is through open and universal 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.479 access to contraception. Yes, i U d S and sterilization 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.960 is what they prefer over of contraception is long term, right, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.200 They don't do the condom or the birth control pill 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.600 that much, not much or vosectomes of work in China. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.240 They put it all on the woman because again that 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.160 they have been accused of preferring boys. It's a very 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.240 patriarchal society. You can't do that though in the long run, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.120 because I got another stat in the end, they think 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.240 in the future, I would say, of the men in 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:22.200 China won't have access to a wife, there aren't enough women. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.280 There won't be enough women right, which in and of 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.920 itself is a problem, but it also gives rise to 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.359 other problems. Um. Apparently there's been a huge rising prostitution, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.160 which has led to a huge rise in the prevalence 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:40.280 of HIV. UM. There's been all sorts of um social maladies. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.920 I guess among men who can't find a wife. I 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.800 mean imagine like they're just not being a woman out 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.720 there that you can find to marry and settle down with, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.280 Like it's just not an option for you. Is going 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:55.240 to produce all manners psychological and social problem. So yeah, 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.240 there's there's all sorts of weird things that are kind 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.480 of popping up up from this one child policy another 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.880 one that I hesitate to work. Use the word weird 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.480 more like horrific is female and fantaside, we said that 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:14.560 China's been accused of preferring boys over girls. Um, there 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.400 are so I should say there are surveys out there, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.200 there are facts and figures that China puts out that 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:26.120 contradict any criticism. UM. But there's two sides of this coin. 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.120 But in the West there's lots and lots of accusations 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:35.120 of female and fantaside. Apparently it was UM traditional until 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.280 the Cultural Revolution UH, and it started to kind of 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.200 pick back up again. UM. There's no statistics or figures 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.400 on how many girls might be killed at birth. UM, 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:52.880 but number one apparently UH abortion after ultrasound sex screening. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:58.600 Sexing was so prevalent that in China banned UH sex 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.640 screening neatle or prenatal sex screening, so you couldn't tell 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.760 whether you you're having a boy or a girl. You know, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.880 there's a private sector that's picked up UM lack that 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.080 will give you an ultratone to let you know what 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:15.880 you're having. And apparently the the female and fantaside, if 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.319 you view abortions in fanticide, has increased well, even in 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.520 fant aside under like the the medical or sociological definition 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.360 of killing a child when it's born or leaving it 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.760 to die UM is still around UM and the the 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.120 those are reflected in the boydie girl ratio right right, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.560 which are which is pretty significant. It doesn't sound like 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.400 a lot, but what what are they? Uh? In two 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.439 thousand five and estimated one hundred and eighteen boys were 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.120 born for every one hundred girls, and that peaked at 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.079 one hundred and thirty boys for every one hundred girls. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.160 And uh, just to compare that to the rest of 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:55.080 the world UM or industrialized countries, I should say, UM 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.360 roughly a hundred and four to a hundred and seven 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.880 boys for every one hundred girls. So definitely a big 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.480 deaf UM. One of the reasons why boys would be 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:10.000 preferred is, um, they can earn more than a woman. 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:12.959 Let's say a woman marries a man, she gets married off, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:17.080 she gets absorbed into the man's family. Um, what happens 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:22.440 to the parents. Here's part of the problem. Seventy of 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.960 UM China's aging population doesn't have a pension. They don't 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:28.880 have four oh one case over there, they don't save 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.200 the government starting to encourage it. This is what I 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.600 see is the biggest problem. Maybe this is a huge, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.840 huge problem. Who's going to take care of people when 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.840 they're getting older? So here's here's what's resulted a phenomenon 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:43.280 called four to one. Right, you have a couple that's 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.600 the two and they're they're responsible for the care of 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:52.360 one child and for parents, for grandparents. So that's like 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.880 the new family structure. Um as far as financial support goes. 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.280 And as you keep having just one child, one child child, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.480 that for to one structure keeps going on and then 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.280 it's one six. Well you know what I mean, that 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.600 one child will have to be responsible for the care 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:14.360 of ultimately six right, if everyone is still alive, his 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.000 two parents and the four grandparents, well, then you just 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.480 start killing the grandparents. This is too much of a 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:24.120 burdens that, Um, No, because that that well, yeah, I 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.160 guess if it's a boy and he has no one 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.960 to marry and he's unlucky enough, No, that wouldn't work 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:32.960 out if it were if it were just a boy 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.080 and he never married, he'd just be responsible for his 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:39.640 own parents. But what about the grandparents again? I think 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.040 that was one of the points they made though, was 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.560 as your parents old and the grandparents are hanging in there, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.440 all of a sudden, your parents are in their seventies, 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.320 your grandparents are in their nineties, and you're the sole child. 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.000 If you are lucky enough to marry and there are 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.320 no grand if your grandparents are dead, you still are 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.920 saddled with two sets of grandparents and a child, and 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.960 that's what you're responsible for providing for. Right. Yeah, that's 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.960 a big problem. Part of that is UM has been 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:12.200 alleviated by a revision in the policy who where UM. 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:17.160 Urban couples who are only children themselves can have more 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.880 than one child. True, so that leaves two siblings, but 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.680 you have to it's still very much unless you're an 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.440 ethnic minority. I don't think you have to apply for 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.960 a child if you're an ethnic minority. Another revision that 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:35.120 they had, Chuck was, um, they stripped local birth quotas 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.920 they is this the birth permits? Yeah, okay, yeah, they 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.200 they stripped the requirement to obtain these birth permits and 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.440 a lot of the provinces recently, right yeah, which basically 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.760 they did it by um taking away the requirement to 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.960 get a birth permit for a first birth. So what 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:59.280 happened before was any locality had a quota of how 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.800 many birth could occur, say in a year or a 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.159 month or something like that, and if that quota was 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.359 filled already, then some couple applying for a permit to 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.080 have a birth would be denied until the next cycle. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.480 This is nuts. It is nuts. I'm all for family planning, 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.680 but this is uh, this is turbo family planning. What's 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.720 nuts is that aside from these social problems, it actually 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:26.720 has led China to become a burgeoning economy. I mean 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.760 it's actually worked in an economic sense, but in a 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:35.040 socioeconomic sense it's it's it's exacting these huge tolls. I 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.000 do have a couple of stats to back that up. UM, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.280 before they instituted this policy, the population and poverty was 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.359 two d and fifty million. That's been reduced to forty million. 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.120 And uh, education um of the average fifteen year old 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.040 went from four point five years to eight point five years. 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.359 So these are the stats that China's gonna point to 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.880 clearly to say that hey, it's working right and you can't. 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.760 I think it's so easy to vilify China for this. UM. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:07.359 The like Christian pro life groups are hugely against this 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:14.199 one child policy UM because it does suborne um abortion 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.920 right very clearly. UM. So there's a lot of people 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.240 opposed to it. But if you're an economist, and maybe 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:26.760 an economist with um, no heart damage to your prefrontal cortex, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.520 then yeah, it makes a lot of sense, and it worked. 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.560 They've also started the girl care program you heard of 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:37.160 that one, and that's basically, uh in a nutshell kind 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.680 of trying to encourage the fact that girls have value 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.439 and worth and are not second class citizens. You like 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.960 that billboard doing, Yeah, the billboard. They have a billboard 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.040 in China that's said in the Hibai province. It says 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.560 there's no difference between having a girl or a boy. 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.400 Girls can also continue the family line, yes, genetically speaking. 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:02.840 So they're trying to do what they can there. UM. 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.840 I guess probably the biggest rub of China's one child 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.200 policy is that, UM, reproduction is a basic human right. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.840 The government's not supposed to tell you how many kids 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.440 are do anything to interfere with your reproduction right. Um. 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.199 And it's also contrary to the will of the people. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.560 In a two thousand three Chinese study, UH, there were 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.960 some people who said they preferred one child. That's about 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.760 of the population surveyed, but fifty seven percent said they 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.760 preferred to So it's directly flies in the face of 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.080 them exactly. What's interesting though, is that UH, there is 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:46.320 a huge decrease in preference of three children, or more 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.920 like five point five percent of the population. Surveys said 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.679 that they would want three kids. So it seems to 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:54.920 have peaked around too. And one of the reasons why 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:59.200 China announced recently that it would be another decade before 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.600 it appeal that's one child policy, is because they're afraid 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.280 of another baby boom, and what they're trying to do 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.639 is create a small family culture in the country. Gotcha. 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.440 But surveys like these suggest that that's they've been successful 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.160 in doing that, right. I think it's up for review 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:17.719 next year and no to two thousand is it's up 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.240 for review next year, But I don't know if that 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.800 means anything's gonna I think they said this summer in 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.040 July that it is going to be another decade before 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.200 they repealed it. And there were a lot of people 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.720 after remember the earthquake in such Uan province, Yeah, killed 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.639 what like ten thousand kids, Yeah, and a lot of 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.160 people's only child. That's your only child. It's a long kid. 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.760 And what happens if you were fifty and when your 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.120 child died, because you know, you wait a long time 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.200 to get married and you your s O L thank 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.600 you government. Uh, you know, I know plenty of Americans 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.480 who think that it's the responsible thing to do to 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.760 only have one child. I've heard people say that as 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.280 a human it's like irresponsible to have two and three 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.399 kids these days. Well, yeah, the toll we exact on 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.439 the environment in or adding to the strain on the 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:07.280 carrying capacity of agriculture. Supposedly, the agricultural techniques we have 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.840 now can support a global population of ten billion. So 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.240 we have a little ways to go. But who knows 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.040 what will happened before then, how how much technology will advance? Um, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.800 we may turn to soilent green who knows? Um, do 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.040 you know there's two women out there walking the planner 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.399 right now, at least two who were sterilized before they 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.040 ever had kids because they wanted to say the environment. 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:37.239 Uh they're both English. As far as I know, I 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.520 remember reading about that. Yeah, thank you pointing that out 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.400 to me. Has nothing to do with China's one child policy. 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:47.000 But yeah, so Chuck doesn't look like they're appealing it. 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:49.879 They did make some they did for those people who 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.040 were still in reproductive age following the earthquake who lost kids. 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.399 They were um, making exceptions, right, but ultimately it's it 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.560 looks like steady the course with the child the one 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.560 child policy. So if, okay, if you want to read 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.639 anything more on China's one child policy, We've got an 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.120 article on the site appropriately entitled what is China's one 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.720 child Policy? I'm pretty sure if you just type in 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.000 one child it will come up in the handy search 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:19.439 bar at how stuffworks dot com. Uh, and let's do 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:24.359 listener mail Josh's listener mail time, And I'm just gonna 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:28.639 call this Uh from Austin. Are our young fan who 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.320 had a dream about us. And I've tried not to 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.200 read dream emails because that encourages people to send in 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.800 their dreams. And we've gotten a lot of hey that 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.160 had this weird dream, but this one was about us, 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:41.959 so of course I'm gonna read it. My name is Austin, 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:44.480 I'm fourteen, and I'm your fan, and I live in Atlanta. 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.040 And it makes it show so much better because you're 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:51.600 located in Atlanta. True, you know, he feels at homeless. Uh. 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:53.679 He's been listening for a while. He loves us, and 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.800 he's just starting high school this year and his podcast 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.480 has been a lifesaver in ap biology. Anyways, finally had 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:06.600 my first dream about you. First first dreams. Uh, this 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:08.520 is a good one, though. He awakes from bed and 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.080 he notices that he's fallen asleep while listening to the podcast. 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.120 It sounds like reality so far. Uh. He walks outside 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.159 and there's a small red plane with a huge banner 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:22.800 that reads all hail Chuck and Josh. I'm looking dream. Yeah, 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:25.159 we sent that plan over your house, buddy. I'm a 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.040 little confused about it, and even more so when I 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:29.320 arrive at school and see that there is a bronze 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.040 statue in your honor because you guys save the economy 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:36.119 with our audiobook. Yeah, how about that? Um. However, it 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:38.240 takes a gloomy turn from here. After a day of 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.719 many questions and much confusion, I finally put together the clues. 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:45.639 After saving the economy, you both take charge and become 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:50.280 dual dictators of America. He require everyone to be educated 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.880