In a memo to employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai admits his company grew so rapidly for an economic future that, as of today, no longer exists. So Google is cutting back 12,000 employees worldwide, even as the company just finished building a giant new building at its Mountain View headquarters. Next, the Covenant School in Nashville has filed a motion to block the release of transgender shooter Audrey Hale s manifesto, and China is launching a nationwide program to encourage people to marry and have more children.
00:16:03.000We can't forget the story of Audrey Hill, who has now been in hell for 51 days.
00:16:07.620According to a survey released at the Third China Population and Development Forum held in Beijing on February 11th,
00:16:18.540China is currently experiencing a change in population with a low fertility rate and a clear decreasing trend in family size.
00:16:26.400In particular, the childless rate has been rising rapidly in recent years from 6.1% in 2015 to nearly 10% in 2020.
00:16:37.620By some estimates, China no longer holds the crown as the world's most populous nation.
00:16:46.460China's population has declined for the first time since 1960s.
00:16:51.680In 2023, we have seen this decline in fertility and rising mortality rate.
00:16:57.220All this would affect maybe the competitiveness of the economy, innovation, and just overall the energy of the Chinese population.
00:17:09.880Well, interestingly enough, so China, the CCP, the People's Republic of China, we know that they're facing a demographic collapse because their birth rate is below replacement level in their population.
00:17:24.800Now, many other countries are in this situation, but in China, they're actually facing a population cliff.
00:17:32.880It's due to their support and continuation, execution of the one-child policy for so many years.
00:17:39.180That policy went into place just after Chairman Mao died back in the 1970s, about 1978, and then it continued all the way up until about 2020.
00:17:48.920So listen to this, at a zero hedge, fearing population collapse, China is launching a new nationwide program to build a new era marriage and childbearing culture within its population, a pro-natalist scheme.
00:18:04.480Wow. Where have I heard that before? Because we just went on this show to Hungary, sat here with Tanya Tay, we brought her on the show, and we said, I wish the United States would start offering programs like this.
00:18:17.560Hungary has it. Poland has it. Now China is going to do it. Because you know why? This is what a serious country with a serious government does.
00:18:26.760They don't flood your entire country with open borders. You just import people from across whatever the next country is and say, come on in, everything will be fine, everything's good, come work, right?
00:18:38.700And I'm sure there's plenty of people all throughout Asia that would love to get these kind of jobs in China, have the ability to go in there, et cetera, et cetera, certainly from Southeast Asia.
00:18:48.420But China says no. China says absolutely not. So what do we see?
00:18:52.100It intended to coincide, they're intending this program to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Families after the UN expressed concerns about fertility decline and demographic change.
00:19:05.000Officials say the venture will focus on tasks, including promoting marriage and having children at appropriate ages, incurring parents to share child rearing responsibilities and curbing high, quote, bride prices and other outdated customs.
00:19:19.440The reference to high bride prices is a Chinese custom, wherein the family is basically dowries.
00:19:25.680The family of the groom gift the bride's family with a large financial contribution known as a ciaili.
00:19:32.860Young women in China are now being urged to sign pledges that they promise not to demand a ciaili from the groom.
00:19:39.780The China Family Planning Association Vice President Yao Ying said the policy is expected to take innovative and proactive measures to help foster childbearing friendly atmosphere as it contribute to advancing Chinese modernization with the support from the high quality development of the population.
00:19:55.020Look, I remember when I lived in Shanghai, I would even and that was it's it's been, believe it or not, it's been 15 years since I was there.
00:20:01.320And on Saturday mornings, you could go down to People's Square Park and in Guangming Gongchong, Gonyuan, down in in the center of the city in Shanghai.
00:20:12.860And what you would see on Saturday mornings were parents with like resumes and pictures of their kids essentially doing matchmaking.
00:20:23.200They were doing just just meeting up. OK, so I've got this daughter and she's this many years old.
00:20:28.100She's this age. This is how much money she makes. This is what the languages she speaks are.
00:20:32.600This is her degree. This is her industry. This is her field. And then they'd match that up with some guy.
00:20:38.360And the problem was, was that so many young Chinese people were totally focused on career and they weren't putting family first.
00:20:47.900They just want to make money. Where have I heard that before? Where does that sound familiar?
00:20:53.200And of course, this matchmaking situations, it wasn't some one of those things where it's like an arranged marriage at all.
00:20:58.780It's it's like, hey, these guys seem like an appropriate match. Let's try to get them together.
00:21:05.140However, it wasn't as big. They wanted to put and you're seeing the government now put this into a massive.
00:21:13.300A massive financial impetus behind all of it to create the economic incentives for family growth.
00:21:19.100According to current projections, China's population is likely to drop below one billion by 2080 and below 800 million by 2100.
00:21:29.640That's a population collapse, an absolute collapse.
00:21:33.680Demographic or demographic or is a typo here on Zero Hedge.
00:21:37.120He Hua Fei told Global Times, the society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth and encourage young people to get married and have children.
00:21:49.760China's new policy is a far cry from the one child policy, which, of course, you already know about this.
00:21:56.420And then, of course, this is still an issue.
00:21:58.520This is also an issue they're mentioning in the UK.
00:22:23.460Do all of those things that you should do, that your family should do and put them first.
00:22:29.120And this whole bit about appropriate childbearing age, you know, that's something out there as well, because so often people are putting career first.
00:22:42.300They're putting and as you guys and girls, right, as men and women, this isn't just this isn't just ladies.
00:22:48.460But people are putting career first and they're pushing back family formation to their 30s, to their 40s.
00:22:55.320It wasn't uncommon for someone to become a grandparent in their 1940s, excuse me, in their in their 40s until not that long ago.
00:23:06.820And so it's only been in the most recent couple of decades that suddenly people are now having kids way, way, way, way, way later, which, you know, you got to do that math.