Assignment task:
China has the largest population in the world at almost 1.4 billion (over 4 times the U.S. population). In the late 1970's, China anticipated a pending problem between over-population and economic growth and as a result, instituted what has been called a "one-child policy". Please read this website article about this policy, as well as page 363 of your textbook and this week's PowerPoint presentation and answer the following questions:
Given such a huge population, do you think governments should have the right to limit the number of children a family is allowed to have? Why or why not?
What might some alternatives be for forcibly limiting population?
According to the readings, the Chinese government used various techniques to ensure families were not having more than one child. Do you think those policies were necessary to ensure their one-child goals were met? What is your opinion of those policies?
What have been some good and bad unintended consequences of the one-child policy for China?