The Spring Festival holiday has passed, and for many young people, perhaps every Spring Festival is accompanied by a different kind of "pressure". Some are urged by their parents to enter the marriage hall as soon as possible, and some are placed on high hopes to continue the family bloodline. The older generation deeply loves their families and homes, and they generally adhere to the traditional concept of "having more children and more blessings, raising children to prevent old age". In their time, the large number of children was seen as a symbol of family prosperity and social stability, as well as a deep expectation of excellence for future generations.
Because of this, many people born in the 60s, 70s, and even 80s have grown up in a big family with many brothers and sisters. Three or four children are not uncommon, and families of seven or eight children are not uncommon. However, as time goes by, when we look at today's society, can we still see so many children around their parents' knees? There may still be such families, but they are undoubtedly rare. In modern society, most families choose to have only one child.
Why? On the one hand, with the concept of "late birth and late childbearing, eugenics" deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, modern couples pay more attention to the quality and comprehensiveness of their children's education and training. Therefore, they choose to have only one child in order to provide them with a better quality of life and education. On the other hand, it is important to ignore the rising cost of raising children, whether it is investment in education, housing arrangements or health care, all of which pose a significant financial pressure. Under the pressure of such realities, many families have to make the choice of having only one child in order to ensure the quality of life of their children.
Twenty years ago, it may have been difficult to foresee the downward challenge of our population, when we were more concerned about the burden of overpopulation on society. However, as time passed, we began to worry about the decline in the population. According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2023 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of births in China in 2023 is only 9.02 million, a figure that marks the lowest birth rate since 1978. Assuming that the annual birth population of 9 million is maintained, it can only accumulate to 900 million in a hundred years, in contrast, China's current total population has reached 1.4 billion, and the total population has entered an era of negative growth. This shift is undoubtedly a wake-up call for us to re-examine the population issue and actively address the challenges ahead.
Our country is facing a serious demographic challenge, and the continued decline in fertility has become a problem that we must face. In order to find a solution, we must dig deep into the root causes of people's desire to have children and address these challenges in a targeted manner.
As we all know, China has fully liberalized the two-child and three-child birth policy, which indicates that the era of family planning has passed and is no longer a key factor affecting fertility. So, what exactly is the main culprit that is currently hindering fertility? The answer points to economic conditions. How do economic conditions affect people's desire to have children? The main aspects are as follows:
1. The economic pressure of buying a house and getting married is huge, which has become an obstacle for people to get married. In the current real estate market environment, housing prices remain high, making housing a heavy burden in the hearts of many people. The house is a symbol of home and an integral part of the family. However, high housing prices have discouraged many young people, making it extremely difficult to get married. Without a house, marriage becomes a distant stretch, let alone having children.
2. In addition to the pressure of buying a house, marriage itself is also a big expense. After buying a house, you also need to consider a series of expenses such as decoration, buying furniture and appliances, and buying a car. In addition, the sky-high bride price in some areas is even more daunting for young people, and the bride price of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars at every turn undoubtedly increases the economic pressure on marriage. For most families, buying a house is exhausting their savings, and the extra costs of getting married are even more unbearable.
3. In modern society, the financial burden of raising children is like a boulder, which makes many families feel a lot of pressure. The cost of raising a child is now vastly higher than it was in the past, and this change cannot be ignored.
In the past, a family could afford to raise seven or eight children, but now many families struggle to afford one child. What's behind this? The answer is not complicated, and that is that modern parents generally expect more from their children, and they want their children to excel and not fall behind. Therefore, parents are never stingy when it comes to education, medical care, and parenting, and they are willing to provide the best of everything for their children. As a result, the cost of one child may even exceed the total cost of raising seven or eight children in the past.
When it comes to their children's education, many parents do not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to buy school district houses in order to give their children a head start at the starting line, and even choose to buy houses in cities with relatively rich educational resources. For example, parents in Henan, Shandong and other places have flocked to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other metropolises just to let their children receive education in these places and take the college entrance examination. In addition, the cost of medical care and daily parenting is also a large amount, the health of children needs to be paid attention to at all times, and the cost of daily necessities such as milk powder and diapers is also considerable. Therefore, in modern society, children are vividly called "gold-swallowing monsters". According to statistics, in 2022, the cost of raising children in the four major first-tier cities has exceeded 2 million yuan, and Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Qingdao and other cities have also exceeded 1.5 million yuan.
To sum up, it is not that people nowadays do not dislike children, but they are facing huge financial pressures, and they find it difficult to afford the cost of getting married and raising children. Therefore, in order to solve the current population problem, it is far from enough to simply liberalize the birth policy, and we also need to solve various problems that affect people's fertility at a deeper level. It is reassuring to know that ** is aware of the problem and is actively seeking a solution. On May 31, 2021, the high-level meeting deliberated and adopted the "Decision on Optimizing the Fertility Policy to Promote the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population", which marks that the three-child policy has been fully liberalized. At the same time, the state is also continuing to regulate the property market, and has introduced relevant policies on issues such as school district housing, in order to create a more relaxed environment for young families, so that they dare to have children and are willing to have children.
With the increasing prominence of China's aging society, young people's fertility intentions have become the focus of national attention. In order to encourage young families to have children, China has "shot" to housing, and in recent years, housing prices have continued to increase, so that people have reduced the pressure to buy houses. In addition to housing prices**, the strategy of combining housing policy and education reform is particularly interesting. The recent reform of the school district housing system in Beijing's Xicheng District is a concrete embodiment of this strategy.
In the past, school district housing has always been a hot spot for parents, especially in the case of uneven distribution of educational resources, buying school district housing has almost become a "hard currency" to enter prestigious schools. The high cost of school district housing not only exacerbates social inequality, but also inhibits the willingness of young families to have children to a certain extent. In order to break this deadlock, Beijing's Xicheng district has taken the lead in making reform attempts.
According to the latest policy, from July 31, 2020, home buyers in Xicheng District will no longer directly correspond to the registration of zoning schools. Instead, all families will be enrolled in the school district or adjacent school districts through multi-school zoning. This means that even if a so-called "school district house" is purchased, there is no guarantee that the child will be able to attend a specific prestigious school, but may be assigned to any school in the district.
This reform measure is undoubtedly a major challenge to the traditional school district housing system. It breaks the inherent model of "school district = famous school" and makes the distribution of educational resources more fair and reasonable. At the same time, efforts are also being made to create a more stable and favorable housing environment for young families by limiting housing prices and increasing the construction of affordable housing, thereby indirectly encouraging childbearing. In addition, many experts and scholars have also put forward their own views and plans for fertility issues.
Economist Ma Guangyuan proposed a "new plan" for 2022, and his parents agreed
As China's aging population becomes more prominent, the challenges brought about by demographic changes are becoming more severe. In order to cope with this challenge, more than 20 provinces and municipalities across the country have introduced a series of policies to encourage childbirth, aiming to increase the fertility rate and promote the healthy development of the population structure.
Among these policies, the extension of maternity leave is particularly noticeable. At present, the minimum length of maternity leave has been set at 60 days, and some regions have extended maternity leave to 90 days. This initiative not only provides women with more time to rest and recover, but also reflects the importance of maternal and infant health. At the same time, the newly revised Family Planning Law also adds "childcare" leave, stipulating that parents are entitled to a certain number of days of parental leave each year, so as to encourage families to better balance the relationship between work and family and create a more harmonious environment for the growth of newborns.
In addition to the extension of maternity leave, many places** have also launched a maternity subsidy policy. In Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, for example, families with two and three children receive a monthly subsidy of 500 yuan per child. Although the amount of subsidy is limited, this policy has played a positive role in reducing the financial burden of families and encouraging childbearing.
In addition, housing subsidies have also become an important means to encourage childbirth in many places. For families with two or three children, some areas have given subsidies for buying houses, ranging from tens of thousands of yuan. The implementation of this policy aims to further stimulate people's willingness to have children by reducing the pressure on families to buy houses.
However, while these new policies have alleviated fertility pressures to some extent, economist Ma Guangyuan points out that attitudes towards fertility have not fundamentally changed. He believes that the current subsidy policy is still a drop in the bucket for the cost of having children, and it is difficult to fundamentally change people's willingness to have children. In order to encourage childbearing more effectively, more attention needs to be paid to key issues such as housing, education and health care to create a better environment for families to have children
The introduction of policies to encourage childbirth must be "real gold" and not "flashy". For example, the extension of the period of compulsory education, the pre-school education into the compulsory education system, in order to reduce the cost of children to go to school, the implementation of a full reimbursement system for the hospitalization expenses of childbirth, the implementation of a full reimbursement system for the hospitalization expenses of childbirth, at the same time will include housing, medical care, education and other packages, one-time to solve the problem from the root. Only by eliminating everyone's anxiety about childbirth can China's fertility rate be significantly improved.
This view is shared by many parents. They said that issues such as housing, education and health care are their top concerns, and if these issues can be properly addressed, their fertility intentions will naturally increase. Therefore, it is necessary to invest more in these areas and provide more support and help, so that families no longer feel stressed and troubled in the process of giving birth and raising children.
Nowadays, many places have introduced policies to encourage childbirth, to a certain extent, to reduce the pressure of childbirth, but to really improve the fertility rate, it is also necessary to start from many aspects to create a better fertility environment for families.
Enjoy the New Year