On July 28, China announced a new monthly child care subsidy of 300 Chinese yuan ($42) for each child under the age of 3. Aimed at boosting the country’s fertility rate, this policy marks a dramatic shift — just a few years ago, families were fined 3 to 10 times the per capita annual income for unauthorized births.
China’s current demographic challenges and policy responses bear striking similarities to those of ancient Rome, where sustaining the population required each woman who lived to menopause to bear between five and seven children. Yet even with this shortfall, the Romans actively practiced eugenics. As Seneca, adviser to Emperor Nero, declared: “Children, too, if they are born weak or deformed, we drown.”
Female infants faced a significantly higher risk of infanticide. Just 1% of the 600 families recorded in second-century Delphic inscriptions raised two daughters. This led to severely skewed sex ratios: 131 males for every 100 females in Rome, and up to 140 males per 100 females in Italy and North Africa. The resulting shortage of women fueled population decline. Social attitudes compounded the problem: Many men were unwilling to marry, despite the pleas of figures like the Roman statesman Metellus Macedonicus, who insisted it was their civic duty to have children.
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