Yeah, yeah—cry me a river. With over 1.2 billion people, I think China could use a population “bust” for a few decades. Market forces will soon kick in to make girls very desirable (if they have not already).
Of course, the problem is what to do with all those excess guys in the short term. I suspect they will make excellent cannon fodder.
THe problem here is that humanity has a short memory in the aggregate. In the not all that distant past there was a chronic shortage of females in virtually every society on Earth. This occurred because of a high maternal death rate. Modern medical practices have virtually eliminated this category of death except in the most isolated and primitive areas.
So, what was normal society like when women were in short supply? Well, you had your whorehouses ~ yup ~ everybody did. Lots of 'em, mostly within easy walking distance of major residential districts.
A small percentage of women provided sexual services to a large percentage of the men.
Other women were pretty much isolated from the world at large ~ those veils, shawls and large bag-like dresses meant something in Germany, France, Iran, China and major trade cities in the Inca Empire. Wealthy men might even acquire more than one wife and keep them in purdah.
China will probably revert to the more traditional system as the disparity grows.
With all due respect, get bent.
market forces? ummmm welcome to china.
Part of the problem is that this has not made girls “very desirable” in the sense one would wish: by raising girls’ and womens’ status in society. Instead, it hs made women very desirable as property. I read on another website of the phenomenon of two brothers in rural China kidnapping one woman in order to take turns sleeping with and keeping house for them both.
If they have a population “bust” for a few decades, as you say, they end up with less people, sure: less young workers and taxpayers, less young risk-taking investors and entrepreneurs, less innovation and creativity in technology (these qualitieis are most amply represented in the disappearing young sector) and proportionately more pervasive stagnation, sick aging workers and retirees.
In a one-child society, in a few decades each and every worker has 4 grandparents to support, directly or through taxes.
Then what? Is that one worker going to want to start his own family and support them, too? Hardly.
Thus the whole thing comes crashing down.