China’s Birthrate Need Not Ruin Retiree System
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The Dec. 6 Column One, “China Fears a Baby Bust,” reports that some researchers fear that China’s low birthrate will destroy retirement programs. But declining fertility rates do not lead inexorably to a collapse in retirement systems, as the article suggests.
Though retirement programs are influenced by demographic shifts, their viability ultimately depends on political decisions about how to generate and redistribute wealth. For example, in a low-birthrate society, such as China, government spending can be redirected from education to retirement programs.
China’s coercive one-child policy should be abolished and replaced with a program of voluntary family planning. Instead of trying to reignite the population explosion, we must seek prudent political solutions to the social and economic changes created by new demographic realities.
John Seager
Executive Director
Population Connection
Washington
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