China Miscalculated Its Way to a Baby Bust

I have friends in China who have children. Let me put it like this: The school environment in China is insane. It is unbelievably competitive and extremely demanding -- of children as young as 6 and 7.

You know how America is with "good colleges?" Well, China has "good Elementary Schools," "good Middle Schools," and so on. If your child doesn't make the cut, he or she will eventually get put on a low-status vocational track. So parents are all about grinding, tutoring, targeted extracurriculars, and having their kids study for literally 12 hours a day.

This, which is the most characteristic trait of the Chinese education system from Chongqing to Beijing, is torture for parent and child alike.

The Chinese government tried to rein it in a little bit, by cracking down on expensive private tutors, but without much success as yet. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-impose-hefty-fines...

Example #23423423 of why centralized planning is a bad idea when given too much power.

Turns out making a single entity omnipresent & all powerful is a bad idea!