Opinion | The Problem(s) With China's Population Drop

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : China's social safety net is relatively undeveloped compared with ours, but older Chinese nonetheless depend on government aid -- especially the state pension.
55% : In the United States the three big social programs are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; the first two are explicitly targeted at seniors, and even the third spends most of its money on older Americans and the disabled.
45% : In each case, the funding for these programs ultimately depends on taxes paid by working-age adults, and concerns about America's long-term fiscal future arise largely from a rising old-age dependency ratio -- that is, a rising ratio of seniors to those of working age.
40% : This means that China will either have to inflict a lot of economic pain on its elderly, sharply raise taxes on younger citizens or both.

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