Topic: Is "One Family One Child" a global viable soluiton? If not, what is?
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video of China's One Family One Child policy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=H4OWJlyaHt0&feature=related
"Demographic growth may have been stemmed but new population problems have been created. The preference for boys has led to millions of female fetuses being aborted. Now, tens of millions of Chinese men face a future with no prospect of a female partner. And that could create the social unrest the one child policy was supposed to avoid" A "One Family One Child" policy definitely would have to seriously address some of the human rights abuses that came as a result of what has happened in China. The issue of overpopulation touches on many issues including social and gender inequality...which China did not take into account. |
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It's a tough question. Some feel it's looking increasingly as though we may have (essentially) ignored the issue for so long that more extreme measures, such as some sort of globally encouraged one-child policy, may become necessary. Of course it does raise a lof of difficult issues -- maybe not as difficult though as the kind of human die-off we might expect to result from still more inattention to the issue. Tough question indeed.
One person who's thought a lot about the one-child policy issue is Jack Alpert. This is his site (not the easiest to digest in a quick visit, but with some materials well worth examining):
Here is one particularly relevant brief essay:
http://www.skil.org/position_papers_folder/consensusbeforeBehChg.html
Hardin wrote of "mutually coercion, mutually agreed upon." Does that point in a direction humanity needs to be looking?
Well, I do agree we need to consider the kinds of questions David raises and to get these topics in the open for discussion.
John |
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One program that seems to come to the front a lot is the effort to convince and institute the voluntary decision by parents to have only one child. I read in one place that it has had success. It does have the potential for population stability over a generation or more's time, and gradual reduction after that. Forgive me for not remembering whose program it is, but, given the wide range of cultural differences, tradition, religious dictates, economic fears, paranoia, politics, etc., can this be done globally? Given that the voluntary approaches rely on morality and conscientious action, how easily does it fail when exceptions are perceived? Can the principle of The Commons be instilled in people enough to help reinforce morality and voluntary decisions?
If not, what has been proven to work in places where the One Family One Child idea is not effective? In other words, is there a selection of programs for adaptation to various parts of the world?
These are some questions that should lead to some solutions--this and opening up the topic for all to hear and talk about.
David
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