I knew a gangly guy a long time ago whose childhood nickname was "Scrap" -- because it was said when God ran out of matching parts, he used parts from the scrap heap to create this guy.

That cat strikes me as a "Scrap."

"China's Three-Child Policy Sparks Indignation and Concern"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chinas-three-child-policy-sparks-indignation-and-concern/ar-AAKANOA?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

Excerpts:

...“I recommend you first fix the most basic problems with maternity rights and the discrimination women will inevitably face in the workplace, and then encourage them to have children,” read the most popular comment under an article about the policy change by Xinhua, the state news agency.

Another commenter was more direct: “Get out of here! Will you help us take care of the kids? Will you give us a house?”

In response to a poll by Xinhua that was titled: “Are you ready for the three-child policy?” just a tiny fraction of respondents chose “I’m ready, I can’t wait.” Of roughly 22,000 people who had responded to the poll at one point, 20,000 chose “I won’t consider it at all.” The poll was quickly deleted.

In its announcement, the government promised to help families with education costs and child care, but gave little detail...

(snip)

Interesting passage. Your excerpts suggest Xi & successors may be burdened with a populace expecting socialist free candy— Take care of my kids! Give me a house!… Precisely the delusional foolishness we've seen in the West as masculine responsibility has been superseded by promises in policy.

"Barack Obama's going to pay my rent!...."

Sucks to be Chinese. In China, I mean.

The monkey's paw curls a finger

https://twitter.com/politicalmath/status/1399454998711341059

Of course, as others have pointed out, many Chinese millennials have simply discovered how much more peaceful, stable and comfortable life is with a small family, compared to their boomer grandparents' lives, so they're not about to sacrifice those qualities of life just because the nation needs more children.

It reminds me of this 2013 article: "TV as Birth Control."

https://www.conservationmagazine.org/2013/09/tv-as-birth-control/

There are several charts.

It seems that when Third World people have some access to TV and see how fictional families are managing to live more happily after bucking the pressure to have large families, the viewers want to do the same. (Especially when the TV plots EMPHASIZE how much happier and well-fed one's life can be when you're truly in control of your reproductive life.)

If the kitteh is female, I would name her FloJo!

> many Chinese millennials have simply
> discovered how much more peaceful,
> stable and comfortable life is with
> a small family

Dear Woman,

The word "simply" is a tell, always.

When the history of these centuries is written, there may be no greater description of horror than the Communist policy mandates constraining fertility in China across your & my lifetimes (presuming you too are between 50 and 70yo). There were forced abortions, and women dragged out of the house in the middle of the night, and literally tens of millions of atrocities too loathsome to be described in English on this blog. It was MONSTROUS.

Lenona, you have *got* to find a way to read tweets:

@HumanProgress

China's birth rate would have fallen without coercive measures. In Hong Kong, where there were never any birth limits, the number of births per woman also fell. South Korea saw an even sharper decline than China.

The idea that "overpopulation" necessarily leads to scarce resources is simply wrong.

Flawed Assumptions of China's Disastrous Childbearing Law

By Chelsea Follett

Moar— It was pointless.

@HumanProgress

China's new three-child policy is coercive and meant to target minority groups.

China should admit its mistakes and drop all restrictions on childbearing along with the false Malthusian ideology used to justify them.

Politics — China Moves to Three-Child Policy to Boost Falling Birthrate
Bloomberg News

May 31, 2021, 3:10 AM EDT Updated on May 31, 2021, 6:10 AM EDT

But the millions, nearly (now) billion Chinese who've grown up with the diminished pitter-patter of little feet haven't made some sophisticated choice about their fertility. It's certainly not about peace, stability and comfort or other "qualities of life"... Not in China.

Those generations were intrusively brutalized with a ferocity nearly unseen in the Western World.

This is certainly one of the finest web page/column illustrations of this toddling decade.

FTR— IIRC, and that ought to be enough acronyms for one blog comment, global fertility is falling, and "peak diaper" was in 2017 or 2018. I forget which. I was busy that year with family stuff.

Global population will continue to increase for many years, because we're getting better and better at letting people live long and healthy lives.

They fucked up this animation, presumably because wokies. But don't kid yourself— Even in this anus miserabe, humanity is improving at a fantastic rate.

Awwww. Tuvix got a kitty!

Transporter malfunctions sometimes work out for the best.

"Global population will continue to increase for many years, because we're getting better and better at letting people live long and healthy lives."

Optimism is one thing. Uninformed optimism is another. I am cautious, mostly because people refuse to learn that bringing the habits that destroyed their location to a new one will destroy it also.

I am fairly sure you don't want the whole planet to look like LA.

I certainly want everyone to live as well as I've lived in L.A.

Thanks to everyone for not calling me out on mispelling annus as anus.

Perhaps most everyone on the planet regards 2020 as a butthole of a year, so let's roll with it.

Crid, I've been well aware of the horrific abuses under the one-child policy - long BEFORE I saw the long 2020 PBS Independent Lens documentary. (Believe me, it's not for the weak of stomach.) MAYBE future historians will agree there was nothing necessary about the policy itself.

I was merely pointing out that now that the young Chinese have permission to have three children, they don't seem EAGER to do so, even though there have also been plenty of horrific stories regarding son-preference - and, presumably, there are now at least some young parents with a daughter or two but no sons.

When women, especially, are forced, for decades, to make themselves useful in multiple ways, not just one, it should be no surprise that they would prefer to STAY useful in multiple ways. Children are time-consuming.

Not to mention that anyone should be smart enough to realize that even the perfect adult child can get hit by a car - or, adult children might be financially unable to care for their parents due to having to support their own children, so "blessings" are not to be counted on. You have to support yourself.

And, for what it's worth, I see that HumanProgress is a project of the libertarian Cato Institute, and even if it weren't, I think it's just plain weird for anyone to say "the premise that 'overpopulation' is a problem at all is incorrect."

Or that "each child born today eventually grows up to make resources less scarce, on average, by contributing to innovation and the global economy."

It's especially weird, given that humans are inclined to be very selfish animals toward their own kind (unlike other species) - and that includes parents, who often care even less about their neighbors than non-parents; they're simply desperate to make sure their own kids are cared for, so other people in need are considered expendable. "Nothing except diamonds is above the law of scarcity value."

By the way, whenever I can get a library Chromebook (which I'm using right now), yes, I can read Twitter. But anyone knows that you don't need Twitter to find any REAL, level-headed wisdom, since that's not what Twitter is known for in the first place. (Some such sources would be Wendy Kaminer or Andrew Sullivan.)

Also, I look forward to the day when I can go to ANY library and actually use the computers inside, since that will mean I can stop taking them home and wasting so much time. I just can't handle that addiction, I guess.

> now that the young Chinese have
> permission to have three children,
> they don't seem EAGER

Right, but when the culture has had a generation or two of life-threatening manipulation like that, it's heard to judge the sincerity of their enthusiasm either way.

Twitter's full of real stuff! There are some brilliant people linking fascinating & timely things that you won't find aggregated by any other service.

Also, cute dogs.

And, yes, addiction. I've backed off the alcohol substantially in the last year. The twitter habit rages ever onward.

The link doesn't work - I see the Twitter symbol, but then it keeps telling me to reload.

Works here.

Try https://twitter.com/MrAndrewCotter/status/1243539675031232519