re: #372 SixDegrees

They’ve recently lifted the One Child rule in rural areas. The economic shifts in the country have drained farms of population, as people stream into the cities for high paying work. There’s a shortage of manpower to produce food. The hope isn’t so much to increase the birth rate among those left behind, but to use the exemption as an incentive for those in the cities who want more than one child to relocate back to the countryside.

See Stewart Brand’s presentation here; basically once you go Urban population pressure drifts down, birthrates decrease.

blog.ted.com