Traditionally working class Chinese families see children as their old age pension. Wealthy Chinese show off their many children as a source of pride and abundance. In a modern economy with a high rate of women labor participation and the possibility of far better career prospects than in the past, the pension imperative through kids is lost.
In times past, our parents or grandparents worry about having a roof over their heads and the even next meal. They pray they do not fall ill as there is no spare cash for visiting the doctor. If such misfortune visits, they go a begging to relatives and friends for money. I have seen this with my own eyes as a child. Certainly they could not afford the luxury of investing in their inner lives. It is just incongruous to think that kids provide some soul satisfaction especially when so many babies were given away because they had one too many with nary a tear shed. Again there were such stories in my family.
Children were pensions. My kids reading this will find it just surreal.
Don't blame the government for the low TFR. The problem exists in other societies without a stop at two policy.
This is a deep seated anthropological problem. We are bringing the wrong tools to reverse the TFR. Nevertheless I think we ought to adopt the PAP's Women Wing suggestions. Just don't expect it work a miracle.
It is beautiful to love children especially when they are not yours, vulnerable, uncared and sick. This is the reason why I put up the previous post. Charity begins at home by loving your very own kids first. You can't do that unless you have kids right?
A soul based solution will naturally lead us to crack the anthropological problem but governments are never in this department. They cannot and must never be. Time to find our own solutions from the ground up. I hope religious leaders could do something but I am not optimistic. The President ought to get active promoting raising families and may be around this seed something good will happen.
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