βThe 996 work schedule has officially been made illegal. Firms relying on gig work have been ordered to improve pay and working conditions. The Housing ministry has capped annual rent increases at 5%. The $120 billion private education and tutoring industry was effectively killed off overnight.β
aand this is why China will win. The last time western governments had enough agency to do stuff like this was WW2.
Fully betting China will solve the youth fertility crisis within this decade. Be it via arranged marriages, algoritmic fuckery, or plain old tax hikes for not having children.
> Fully betting China will solve the youth fertility crisis within this decade.
Can't see it, personally. The government does not understand life from the perspective of a young adult. Look at their incentives.
The amount that a Chinese family has to invest in tutoring for the zero-sum gaokao[1], just so that their child keeps up with the pack; the hukou system that means among other problems that access to child healthcare or schools where the parents live and work is expensive; the lack of a pension system requiring young adults to support their parents (two each) as well as save for their own retirement; house ownership unaffordability.
Fix those, and people might relax enough to have children. But maybe not - there are plenty of other things to do these days, and one-child families are the cultural norm now.
Eliminating 996 just means two jobs instead of one; and capping rent and increasing wages increases saving for old age, and possibly spending on material goods and services a little because the fundamentals and incentives have not changed.
1. Yes, I know that large-scale for-profit tutoring has been banned. That just drives it underground, because the fundamentals (the gaokao) and incentives have not changed.
aand this is why China will win. The last time western governments had enough agency to do stuff like this was WW2.
Fully betting China will solve the youth fertility crisis within this decade. Be it via arranged marriages, algoritmic fuckery, or plain old tax hikes for not having children.