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

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.