Hacker News Reader

Comment by theklub | Hacker News Reader

Maybe something about only allow one child and what not. That seems pretty communist to me.

I never understood the criticism over one child policy. Had it not been for that policy, the population of China could well be over 2 billion by now. Is this something the rest of the world wanted? Sure it's cruel and not fair to some of the families, but considering the alternative, I'd argue this is something that has to be done.

While I completely agree, the one child policy hasn't been without its problems.

For example, the number of boys Vs. girls in China is likely going to result in either a civil war or worse another international conflict 20 years from now. An extremely unhappy population is not constructive for world peace (or even inter-China peace).

I am extremely concerned about that powder keg and everyone else should be too. What does a society do with a bunch of unhappy 20 something males typically?

Surely the one child policy is more Malthusian than anything else, and Malthus was very far from communist.

Was Malthus advocating forced abortions? If not, the Chinese are up to something else.

Celibacy for the poor was his preferred method.

And three very prominent opponents of Malthus are Marx, Engels and Lenin.

The one child policy is not particularly communist.

edit - Also, China has an insanely long literary history, if I was going to place bets I'd start looking for the sources of the one-child policy somewhere in there before going to people like Malthus or Marx. That said, the policy is without a doubt far more Malthusian than it is Marxist.

edit2 - here's a guess - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Lord_Shang

Reply on news.ycombinator.com