Three-child policy (三孩政策)

Ever since I was a child, I was aware of the "One Child Policy" in China because my parents were subject to penalties if they went over one child, and I was that one child. Talk about pressure! Recently though, due to declining fertility rates around the world and especially in China, they changed their policy to encouraging prospecive parents to have kids, upping the number not from one to two but jumping up to "three is best." (There was a brief period in parts of China were they had a "two-child policy" where any parents who had more than 2 children would be subject to penalty, but that's now been scrapped for three kids. It's a lesson in not trusting the government to stay committed to one policy, as the government needs to adjust its policies based on how the world changes, but the Chinese government especially looks foolish now for limiting parents to one child for such a long time. Basically, if you go for a radical policy that goes against incentive structures and human behavior, you might regret it later: all those only children in my generation lived rather lonely lifestyles and in my opinion made us less likely to have children because we experienced what it was like to be lonely as a kid without a big family and the joys of having a big family, so we don't need it. (I do have a sister but our relationship is not a typical sibling relationship due to the age gap). There's also wacky stuff about the one-child policy: what if you have twins or more? (probably a provision in there that said you could keep the babies if there were unexpected multiples). And a big problem in America is unexpected pregancies: Parents with a kid already: You get drunk one night, make some bad decisions, and boom you have a second child: do you get punished for that? The financial punishment and socially the second kid could not be put into the national system, so they didn't technically exist and wouldn't get benefits, education, etc. Pretty intense, and you have to wonder how many children were aborted due to those looming punishments. The ironic thing is, now that the one-child policy has been lifted and the "three is best" philopsophy has been adopted and encouraged when it's convenient for the government now to have more children (it's blatantly just a social welfare thing and nothing individually beneficial for the parents like say, mothers get healthier if they have more children or anything), it's the financial incentives that are keeping people from having children, this time not imposed by the government by worldwide it's the looming cost of having another mouth of feed but also daycare, education, owning a home, gas prices, just everything: I can't be the only one who frets about inflation doubling prices every 10 years or so, meanwhile what the jobs be like in 10 years? Will there even be jobs? People are ALREADY worried about not having enough money to have kids now while there are jobs, what will it be like when there aren't jobs? Maybe every generation has the same worry and it all works out 30 years later that having kids was a good decision and worth it financially ("it all worked out in the end") but during my parents' generation there was still optimism about the future, computers weren't even generally accessible yet, you could think of more jobs coming, growth industries, various fields in science and technologies needing people to help guide them into the new century. (Ironically, the time when people were optimisic was when China clamped down on their birth rates, while now people are pessimistic but the government wants them to have more kids. Going against the grain). And yes, three kids seems too ambitious. I polled my friends who have had kids: There are not really any "savings" to be had after the first child, it's not like you can recycle everything from the first kid and give it to the 2nd kid and 3rd kid and so on. Each kid has their own costs, own lessons (you don't get a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 deal in most places), they have to pay for each seat they take up in the airplane, you have to buy a bigger car, each has their own dance lesson classes, tennis classes, etc. (Unless you do what I plan to do is give my kid a book and tell them to read, everything costs money). So many scams and things you don't need (the American economy and probably the Chinese economy thrives on people paying for these!) are lumped on you when you have a kid whereas I can avoid it now: daycare, going to Disneyland, getting games and phones for the kids (if one kid at school has it, all the kids want it), food, the coolest clothes and shoes, baseball games, it's like opening up a Pandora's box of temptations and guilt trips for parents thinking they might not be doing their best for the kids. And parents are supposed to be saving for college during all this time of supporting the kids, who are negative inputs into the household income? Another big thing I thought of just writing this: healthcare, maybe the biggest scam of them all. Need a family plan! It's all pretty daunting. I know China wants everyone to think "three is best," but most sane people and their bank accounts think, "zero is best, but we'll settle for one if you really need one." One of my friends with 2 kids said he'd gladly have a third kid.......if he could afford it. And then there's the lingering fear of what our world will be like in just 10 short years. I just watched Terminator from start to finish for the first time: we as humans can take all the precautions and preventative measures against rogue AI that we want, and do a good job 99% of the time (given the current political climate and what world leaders are doing, doubt the number will be as high as 99%), but all it takes is that one rogue machine that's a super-intelligent being higher than all of us to go out of control and then you get Arnold Schwarzanegger marking us all for elimination. The machines will think for human babies "Zero is best."