China's Shocking New Demographic Numbers; Chinese Economy: Capital Outflows; I-P - China Update

[TexasTowelie]

2. Declining population is not necessarily good news.

With a declining population there are less people to support social programs, particularly for the elderly. An inverted population pyramid would mean that there are actually more people of retirement age compared to working age. The retirement age in China is 60 for men, 55 for white collar women and 50 for women working in factory jobs. The declining population and unfavorable ratio between the employed and the retired means that the working age population will also have to spend more of their resources providing for prior generations which means that less resources are available to either produce the next generation or provide for them.

China also made a major mistake with their one-child policy. The desire to have male children decades ago has led to fewer women of reproductive age being available now. This in turn has led to more unmarried men who tend to be protestors in demonstrations and riots because of the diminishing economic and social prospects. So there it is a societal impact when controls are introduced to affect reproduction. China is now seeing the consequences of their prior policies and these problems may be more difficult to address than the concerns of overpopulation decades ago.