Population control was. Colonization stuff

Thomas Barclay schrieb:
> [Tomb] I recall hearing about the Chinese

AFAIK, it is still enforced. It seems to have worked fairly well in its aim to
reduce population growth. China is still growing, but only by 0.88% (according
to the CIA world factbook:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html ), which is
an achievement - compare to, say, India (1.55%) or Nigeria (2.61%). The
reason China is still growing is that the earlier "Baby Boomers" are now in
their fertile age rather than to the actual birth rate.

However, there have been significant social costs, abuses etc. Among the most
serious is the effect the preference for male children had (abortion
specifically of girls, neglect of girl babies). There is now a marked gender
imbalance in many areas. Newsweek (or Time?) about a year ago carried an
article about the the criminal practice of kidnapping women from the great
cities to marry them off to men in remote rural districts.

Another cause for concern is the preponderance of pampered single children.

Greetings

G'day,

> However, there have been significant social costs, abuses etc....

These are potential problems on colony worlds too, and could also lead to some
interesting scenario ideas on "shared" worlds or neighbouring colonies.

Cheers