One-Child Policy - No more?

Part of China's who will care for the elderly crisis stems from the fact that families are only allowed one child. Because of this, there is a giant imbalance in the Chinese population. Especially since technology has changed that has allowed people to live longer and healthier lives, there are less and less people to care for the older generations. Women are heading into the workforce and waiting to have children - this means that the population, while large, is decreasing since parents are not having two children to replace them later in life. China's working population is growing extremely fast because of the economic boom, but soon enough all of those people will be elderly and in need of care. Shanghai has already withdrawn the one-child policy because they are trying to get more younger generations. Instead of having a healthy population balance that looks like a rectangle, or even a triangle, China's population will soon look like an upside down triangle, with a lot of elderly at the top, and almost no working population. If this occurs, then with the lack of working adults in the country, China will not only get old, but face serious problems. Instead of being an innovative country that looks forward towards the future with new working technologies and productivity, they will have to care for and help their aged citizens, a time-consuming and expensive responsibility.


Information received from:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/china-shanghai-demography-population-opinions-columnists-one-child-policy.html