
No Country for Young Men: China's testosterone problem and the effects of the one-child policy - robg
http://tnr.com/story_print.html?id=06d65840-0997-482e-a84d-b09b61a7b0e5
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mynameishere
Back when I subscribed to Forbes, I remember an editorial suggesting how
wonderful China's gender problem was...think of all the female-hungry Chinese
engineers we can import into the USA! No shit, Forbes magazine said that. It
was then that I realized the elite would gladly sell my organs on a penny
profit.

At any rate, expect a steady flow of paid-for brides moving into China. Those
billions of dollars sitting in China's central banks can only go one place,
and we only have so many things they want to buy.

~~~
giardini
Brides? Why so much trouble? Japan will solve your problem!

Less emotionally volatile than a bride and submissive to your every desire, we
present the Tanjansu female concubot. Available in 20 different skin tones and
with interchangeable head, torso and legs, you can mix and match to satisfy
your daily kinky whim.

And Tanjansu can cook! Modules are available for 16 varieties of Chinese,
Japanese and McDonald's cuisine.

Help avoid testosterone-induced social strife. Ensure domestic tranquility and
do your part to bring China forward, to enhance Chino-Japanese relations and
to lower your libido today. Only 110,000 yuan (basic model).

~~~
jrockway
Yeah, hilarious... but people still use each other for "reproduction" or even,
gasp, conversation! It may surprise you to hear this, but some people actually
want to have a family instead of spending all day fucking a robot.

~~~
giardini
Reproduction is necessary for the species but not for the individual.

Most men (and we are mostly men here, are we not?) don't usually seek hours in
conversation with women. Such I deem a sign that one is unsucessful in mating.

And most men do not wish to be constrained to fucking any one particular being
be it robot or human: <http://nymag.com/relationships/sex/47055/>

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pg
How many children do the 10 most powerful political leaders in China have? I'd
be curious, if anyone knows.

~~~
bilbo0s
China is run by what seems to me to be effectively a 'board of directors',
these men are too old to have been affected by those policies. When I say old,
I'm talking OLD too. We think John McCain is old. By Chinese standards he
would be just getting to the point where they MIGHT let him have a say in who
the next president is. Seriously, these guys are so old it is RIDICULOUS.
Their presidential elections work something like this:

-Small number of, seriously old, think in the 90 year old range, guys get together and decide they've had it with the 70 year old president. China's economy is only growing at 10% a year, or something ridiculous like that. Their stock exchanges only offer up surges in the 40-50% range per year, and GOSH DARNIT!! 'How long can the shareholders be reasonably expected to tolerate such pitiful returns?' They lament. 'China's future is at stake!!!' 'That means our CHILDREN are at stake!!!' 'Why they may even have to clean their own toilets!!!' 'Won't someone think of the CHILDREN!!!'

-To address this crisis in the portfolios of the Chinese people . . . er . . . I mean . . . crisis in the leadership of the Chinese people. They have found some spritely, dynamic, new young blood, by young I mean 60, and they say he is the new guy in charge.

-All the leaders of the communist party, being obedient mentees of these old guys, sing the new guy's praises, elect him president, and the old guy goes home. (Only not really . . . see he'll BE one of those old guys now, so he'll ALWAYS have some influence)

Bit of an oversimplification, but not much. When I first studied this I
thought, 'man this sounds JUST like the process of a board of directors'. But
if the rest of the world wants to call it a political system, who am I to
question? Fine, it's a political system.

An interesting test might be to try to get China to do what we want another
way. Let's forget about armies, and navies, and Taiwan, and democracy, and
demonstrations. Let's try causing a blip in their quarterly results. I'd
imagine the speed with which change would come would make our heads spin.
That's just my theory though.

~~~
bokonist
I think you're pretty much correct. It's more like the board of trustees of a
"non-profit", since the board elects its own members, rather than having
shareholders elect the board. The system works reasonably well. The president
is selected for competence and there is a stable secession process.

I think it is foolish to argue that China should be more democratic. People
today forget how dangerous democracies are that don't have systematic anti-
jingoistic indoctrination. Read the history of how universal suffrage in
Europe from 1880-1914 led to the rise of militarist-nationalist politicians (
Stephan Zweig's The World of Yesterday is a great book on this topic). Do we
really want to see the Chinese equivalent of Bill O'Reilly and Ernst Lissauer?
I'll take the 90 year old men, thank you very much ...

~~~
bilbo0s
Oh yes. Understand me correctly, I am a believer in the appropriateness of the
current system in China. I do agree with you, to pursue the establishment of a
democratic system in China right now would be to follow a decidedly misguided
course. The jingoists would take over in fairly short order.

Believe me, I feel more safe going to sleep every night knowing that China is
run by boring, old, stodgy, conservative men who are anything but rash.

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biohacker42
The deep and strong custom of boys over girls is fascinating. In eastern
Europe and a lot of other places, girls are the ones who are valuable, for
obvious reasons. And by obvious I am talking in Darwinian terms.

So the only way I can think that a custom like that can survive is if people
have no way to control the sex of children. But now suddenly they do.

It is hard to explain to people from the new world just how powerful culture
can be. Old world tribal customs culture, not Mozart and Voltaire culture. You
can fight and break laws, but do not ever break customs!

I've heard people say that a Chinese proverb about raising girls is something
about watering someone else's garden. I worry things like that will go away
only if the ancient customs' back is truly broken.

Let the ratio of girls to boys go completely out of hand. Then sit back and
watch an old stupid custom die a painful death.

~~~
eugenejen
Is this the reason why I think girls from East Europe are more attractive? It
is interesting to look at this from sexual selection point of view.

On the other hand. I really wish the old tradition in china goes away. There
was a time in the 20th century when both Communists and Nationalists in China
pushed forward gender egalitarian agenda. But it only reached urban area and
the people in country sides are still deeply rooted in old tradition (but at
the same time, we all know the people in country side have to favor male off
springs for agriculture purpose) So we are watching a very big experiment in
society that may last for 100 years.

~~~
biohacker42
I credit the greater genetic diversity (when compared to West Europeans) of
East Europeans for out good looks.

~~~
eugenejen
I am curious. Do you have any citation about this? I know Russians are pretty
mixed in both Y Chromosome and mitochondrial DNA due to history. But how about
others?

Also in this
[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,559284,00....](http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,559284,00.html).
It seems even Scandinavians are mixed heritage.

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msluyter
What's so scary about this is that the quickest and surest way to eliminate a
surplus of young men is war.

~~~
eugenejen
It is not so scary in history of China. Chinese waged wars/feuds against each
other in 90% of the recorded history. China always have surplus male
population to be wasted.

But wars before were contained in regional provinces or mainland. Considering
now China owns nuclear war heads and ICBMs. Then any one who is crazy enough
will be a threat to U.S.A. and neighbors of China. Especially U.S.A. was
considered as a potential enemy by them.

It is the same thing like U.S.A didn't need to care who those Wahhabi
jihadists before. But now they project their anger on U.S. and have means to
create collateral damage in U.S.A. Then it becomes nuisances to U.S.

(P.S. I am a half Chinese and half Taiwanese in U.S.A.)

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parenthesis
This is interesting data in this connection:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio>

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chaostheory
if mainland Chinese society made a shift to be more gender equal (politically
and economically), this wouldn't be (or stay) a problem...

This is a ticking time bomb, both there and in India

~~~
eugenejen
Arab World also has a similar problem. And anger from young men there already
exploded and made a landmark in NYC. (I lived in LES in NYC in 9/11/2001 and
breathed for a month of air with asbestos and smoke.) So we've already known
what is possible to be done by angry young men.

\-- edit --

Why this is considered offensive? Will anyone tell me?

~~~
hugh
It's possible you're being modded down for your poor spelling and grammar.
I've modded you back up to 1.

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ulf
i think that is only one of many points in the nearer future of countries like
China or India that will have a lot of repercussions...

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omouse
_"In a round-up last year, Beijing cops seized 3,400 guns and knives used in
war games"_

WTF! Knives?! These guys are hardcore.

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jobeirne
Yet another fine testament to government regulation!

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rahulgarg
My answer was different : Rapture.

