Yesterday, China amended its one-child policy to a two-child policy. While some human rights activists applauded the move, others reminded people that any policy that limits or restricts births is not a good policy.
And then there's CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, who tweeted this:
One thing about China's one-child policy: it worked
(via Credit Suisse) pic.twitter.com/CXIOfQo1sg
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) October 29, 2015Which is just...wrong, on so many levels.
China's one-child policy did "successfully" reduce the birth rate of Chinese citizens, but at devastating societal costs. China now has one of the largest gender imbalances in the world, and there are millions of "missing" women who were either forcibly aborted, killed at birth, or abandoned as a result of the policy. It's been dubbed the world's worst law.
When Twitter users, including my colleague Guy Benson, called out Quintanilla for his rather harsh phrasing, he had this defense:
@guypbenson retweets are NOT endorsements
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) October 30, 2015For the record: tweeting a picture of a graph, and then tweeting "it worked" from your own personal account is not a "retweet."
It's important to recognize the horrors the one-child policy has wrought upon China--as they've far outweighed any "benefits" from a shrinking population. It may have "worked," but at what cost?