Tangentially, I just saw a Chinese comedy-drama film (Xueba 学爸） about Chinese parents trying to get their kids (kindergarteners) into “good” schools, and all the sacrifices/difficulties/frustrations they go through. While watching it, I was thinking “Who is going to want to become a parent after seeing this? Whoever approved this film (as every film in China has to be pre-approved by government censors), don’t they know that the Chinese government is trying to raise birth rates?” I guess from their perspective, the lesson of the movie is that it’s not worth it to push your kids that hard to try to get into good schools (which is another thing the Chinese government is trying to persuade parents of).
I agree with Robin Hanson that signaling must be a big part of the problem, and think it’s striking how bad we are at understanding and manipulating signaling dynamics. Even Robin doesn’t seem to explain why there’s now so much more signaling via parenting, to the extent of causing a lot of people to not want to become parents at all. And I don’t see any proposals for raising fertility that are explicitly trying to defuse the signaling spiral. (Are there any?)
Tangentially, I just saw a Chinese comedy-drama film (Xueba 学爸） about Chinese parents trying to get their kids (kindergarteners) into “good” schools, and all the sacrifices/difficulties/frustrations they go through. While watching it, I was thinking “Who is going to want to become a parent after seeing this? Whoever approved this film (as every film in China has to be pre-approved by government censors), don’t they know that the Chinese government is trying to raise birth rates?” I guess from their perspective, the lesson of the movie is that it’s not worth it to push your kids that hard to try to get into good schools (which is another thing the Chinese government is trying to persuade parents of).
I agree with Robin Hanson that signaling must be a big part of the problem, and think it’s striking how bad we are at understanding and manipulating signaling dynamics. Even Robin doesn’t seem to explain why there’s now so much more signaling via parenting, to the extent of causing a lot of people to not want to become parents at all. And I don’t see any proposals for raising fertility that are explicitly trying to defuse the signaling spiral. (Are there any?)