How have governments of richer countries have tried to cope with changes in population structure?

Answer 1

China is a country that has controlled their population using the One Child Policy. The reason why they did this is because their population had been increasing initially as the government had encouraged this however, this increase in population headed towards a famine in 1959 till 1961 which killed 35 million people. This increase in population was growing too fast to be sustainable therefore, in order to avoid a future famine; the government introduced the OCP which would hopefully control the population to a minimal.

There were many rules in China under the OCP which families had to maintain in order to avoid sanctions. Some of the rules which benefitted the Chinese if they followed the OCP is that they would receive a 5 to 10% increase in their salary for limiting themselves to one child and prioritising housing, pension and family benefits including free education for the single child.

However, if families chose to disobey the rules of the OCP, then they would receive a 10% salary cut as well as having fines imposed and families would have to pay for the education for both children and healthcare for the entire family.

The OCP stated that the couples must apply for a certificate before they were allowed to have a child and women who became pregnant the second time were usually forced to have an abortion and were offered sterilisation.