 Is China's population vanishing? They have a record low birthrate for the second year in a row, so we're gonna talk about what the internet's thinking and what as, you know, Chinese Americans, we might think. Well, I reckon it's a good thing because they're our rival, but they're also kind of necessary for our survival. Who's gonna make all our stuff and then buy all the luxury goods? What's going on, Andrew? This is going super viral on a lot of different forums, Andrew. Everything from just population forums to political ones to business forums, Andrew. China's population drops for a second year with record low birth rates. What does it mean, Andrew? Look at the projection. It's on this curve. It's peaking. It looks like by the year 2100, the population's gonna go all the way down to 600 million all the way down from 1.4. But that's in 2100 year. That's crazy anyways to project that far, but I guess some people are wondering, David, is the amount of people talking about this, is it because China is such a player in this globe, right? Whether it's manufacturing, that's a superpower, it's got its hands in a lot of things. So one, on that reason, a lot of people got to talk about. Then number two, there is kind of a negative connotation of people talking about it because a lot of people are like, at least in the internet comments saying, yeah, this is good. Yeah, I think honestly, the news sources definitely are picking sort of negative photos and then just letting people play it out because they know anything involving China right now is getting the click through way. Now, David, we're going to talk about and get into the comment section, but what do people need to realize about population decline? This is happening in a lot of countries. It's happening in a lot of countries, but I guess it's noteworthy in China because China, at one point, has the largest population in the world. It's the second biggest economy and the growth rate decline is being even more accelerated than, for example, in Japan and Korea where it's even worse than China is right now. Right. So wait, you're saying because even though the birth rate in Japan and Korea are lower than China, but because China's huge population, you're seeing a way bigger drop. People are like, China ain't even got rich yet. They were still on the come up. You're supposed to do that once you've been rich like Japan for several decades. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that basically any issue that China has is a big issue because it's a big country. Yes. And it's so interconnected in the global economy. Right. So this is not a small country. This is not like Singapore having a low birth rate, right? Which would affect Singapore, but Singapore's a small country. This is China. So any issue that China has is a gigantic issue. So anyways, that's why people are talking about. So make sure you like, subscribe and turn on your notifications, Andrew, but you know what else is a big deal. Small sauce, man. Very delicious goes good on your food and leading to a flavorless decline, decline in flavorlessness. I think that this is happening everywhere in the world with an urban industrialized population that is moving away from an agricultural society or at least trending away from it. But yes, it's very interesting that it's happening this early in China's economic timeline. Right. I suppose so. We actually have a good friend who's raising a kid in China right now who has baby daughter in China and I asked him about it and this is what he said. He said, you know, I'm not sure what the government is actually going to be able to do. I haven't seen a lot of real solutions or an actual initiative that would convincingly make people like us have more babies. But possibly, I think a lot of governments may in a weird way welcome a reduction of population, especially with the advent and the onset of artificial intelligence. Now, here's the thing about China. They still, I think they want more people. They do. But what are they going to do about it? What can they do? Well, just like before, when they stop people from having babies, force people to have more babies. That's what they need to do. I think that more and more governments, especially with the AI events that are going to be so big in 2024, Andrew, they're almost starting to imagine their societies with like half as many people and they're starting to be like, how can AI and the robots help us get there? Because like you said, Andrew, no country has been able to reverse it. Yeah, no country has been able to reverse it. I do feel like China is going to feel this sharp decline as opposed to India because India, a lot of people, I don't think the birth rates is low. People are having more kids. I think it's 2.1 there. I think it's partially because of religion, because if you are a highly religious country, you're going to be like, oh, I want to have more kids, more people to part of this religion and stuff like that. Like they're just basically in China, people are like, well, you know, like, I don't know, do I want to not have another kid? Like I just got to this lifestyle. And if I raise another kid, it makes my lifestyle harder. And you know, I don't want my kids to live this hard lifestyle. People's values and priorities shifted so far away from that agricultural like spaced out living and so into the crammed skyscraper living so quick that people are like, yeah, I cannot afford to have another child and give them all the things that I would want to give them. Like I just move into the skyscraper. Now if I have a kid, I have to move out of the skyscraper. You know, and I do think a lot of like, I guess, well off kids in China, I'm sure they the ones who can really afford multiple kids, maybe they don't even want to have a lot of kids because they're still just getting to this point where Chinese people are just enjoying their lives now, at least upper middle class people in China are now enjoying their lives. And they feel like having more and more kids because the systems aren't set up for it, they won't be able to enjoy their life. Not only that Andrew, though, their parents were probably more than likely 99% chance 97% chance raised that single children themselves. So they know what it was like. They're like, yeah, being a only child was so great. You have four grandparents, you have two parents, so many people loving you. Why would I want to deny my kid the joy of being a selfish spoiled only child? Yeah, I think it's interesting. I guess my like theory and all this is kind of like how I look at shrinking Chinatowns around the country. You know how they say Chinatowns are kind of shrinking. But Chinese people are still everywhere. Like there's more Chinese restaurants in the big cities than there's ever been in American history, but the Chinatowns are smaller. So I feel like maybe China gets a little smaller over the next 20 years, until there's some type of initiative to have more kids, right? Which maybe in the next 30 years there will be, but there will be a decline of population probably steadily for the next couple decades. But then Chinese people will still be going everywhere in the world having kids or mixing in with other people. Well, Andrew, that brings up an interesting point because some people were saying that all the people who want to have multiple kids are all outbound population immigrating to other countries because it's more comfortable to have more kids in like Australia or New Zealand or America or Canada. Yeah, wow. This guy is saying outbound populations are adding to communist China's population stress while adding valuable educated and welcome resources to other countries. Who doesn't appreciate these new pharmacists, engineers, doctors, college professors. These other countries need more nerds. Yeah, I mean, it is true that the environment in China, whether it's pollution or things like that, it could it could seem more appealing unless your family's got some serious assets or connections to go abroad. I would agree with that. Somebody said, small PPs make no make baby. Dude, China has never had a problem making babies. This is not the issue. Come on, guys. Get these comments, man. Come on, just factually, man. Somebody said Western fascists are always looking for every sign of China's decline. The difference is that China always has a plan for this issue. The West is no longer able to plan longer than the length of their nose. Of course, Andrew, this slipped into a bunch of like East versus West things. They were talking about how Eastern countries have no immigration, but Western countries have a ton of immigration right now. Obviously, maybe particularly some people say it's controversial. Some people say it's not from Africa and Middle Eastern countries, because those are the only bridges of the world that have a positive birth rate right now. But this guy said Asia will never have that for two reasons. One, they protect their borders. In number two, no one wants to live there. Actually, I think a lot of people would want to live in Japan, Korea, and I think some people would move to China for sure. Do you think that people are looking at China just like, it's just not fun enough? I don't want to. It's so unjoyful. Is China going to let in a lot of immigrants from like, let's say the Middle East or Africa or India? I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Well, honestly, I don't think that people would want to and no, to be honest. Interesting. I just don't think so. To be honest, if you made me guess, I feel like East Asia's plan is kind of like, we will deal with it. It's like, we would just rather deal with the robots. They'll go up and down. They'll be like, all right, cool. Basically, people are talking about China's slowing economy. Andrew, there are a ton of college graduates, even with post-grad degrees, Andrew, that cannot find a good job right now. I got a solution for China. This is not a good solution, by the way. This is just a solution. Soft power. You got to make a bunch of movies about depicting different types of parents raising kids. Like a bunch of movies that center around young parents living in different situations, because obviously, if you're well off, no issue usually having kids in any country. When you're middle class, lower middle class and you're poor, then that's an issue you really don't want. If you're just trying to come up, the last thing you want is to have like two kids, then you're like, oh crap, my life is a lot harder. So they need to like depict how to live a life, or they need like more influencers to show people how to live a life raising kids as a middle class man. You're seeing how having multiple kids, which most people generally think makes your life less fun, how it could make your life more fun. Yeah, or how it's glorious. So they need to instill this image that it is the right thing to do and that you can actually live a good life. And then the government also needs to give you breaks. But is that true though, or will you just be lying to people through media? You know, does media depict reality or does reality depict media? I don't know. They need some system changes for sure if they want to make it more appealing. You have to make it easier. I literally haven't seen any country reverse it yet. You have to make things easier. Yeah, I don't think they could reverse it, but you can slow the decline and then maybe you'll see this, the curve will go down, down, down, down, down, and then maybe plateau and then maybe start steering up later. Work on the robots, guys. Work on the robots. Somebody said 40 years of the one child policy is finally coming back to bite them. 60% of Chinese males will never have a date, let alone get married or have kids. They did this to themselves. 60% of Chinese males. I don't know if it's 60% and also guys, clearly Japan and Korea never had a one child policy and they still have a low birth rate. So you don't, it's not only that that that's definitely part of it, but that's not this whole turn into a whole gender war. And there's so many discussions that came out of this. Listen, guys, like we said, when there's things happening to gigantic countries and to technologies changing and there's an aging population, but nobody knows how effective the older people can fit into the modern economy. There's a lot of things Andrew that are incredibly hard to predict. Like nobody knows what's really going to happen. There's so many factors at play right here. I will say this though, there's a lot of interesting debates about governmental policies, modern relationships and marriages, immigration policies, cost of living in general desires of lifestyle, how the population decline will actually impact quality of life. Will it go up or go down? Will everybody be working for the older generation? Or is everybody just going to have more money and more space around them? And then there's a lot of talks about AI, the role of AI and robotics in the future all wrapped up in population decline. You know what China could do? They have all these like built cities. They have a lot of cities in space. They could designate certain cities that are extra kid friendly that are going to appeal to middle class families to move to to raise them in these communities because I do think you need other families around to raise kids. So there's like all these cities that maybe are not being used or you make certain cities more attractive for parents. You need to have a well run systemized daycare in all of those like large skyscraper complexes, you know, with all the stores at the bottom. Because if you guys know about the, I guess probably realistically more like upper middle class in China, they live in these like large skyscrapers and they got like a bunch of stores that China could do. China could designate certain cities that are better for children and then like more policing and more extra schooling, extra this extra nanny care. You know, China is a one country that could do it. They do something like that. Anyways, that's my solution. I don't know what else. I think that yeah, it could be really interesting and they got all the different restaurants and they got the just put them all at the bottom of every think about it. It's not Shenzhen because Shenzhen maybe is too crazy of a city, but like what's a city over from Shenzhen and you make that the child city raise your child in the city. And I think they need to build like more satellite cities because people want to live close to the big city, but realistically you need more space like a better suburb, I guess more kid friendly suburbs. Yeah, just the high speed trains 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes out and make the trains more fun too. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below. You know, solutions based, logical, rational thinking here on the hot pot boys until next time we let us know what you think in the comment section below. We out. Peace.