Value.

With all the troubles afflicting the US economy, American workers may need to realize how well they're doing compared to their counterparts in the Chinese economic miracle.

Actions have consequences. During the last four decades of China's one-child policy, parents often preferred sons, resulting in a lopsided gender ratio that has intensified competition for wives. A New York Times article caught my eye bolstering a post I wrote last year entitled "Flattery & China".

"Officials in Daijiapu, a town in southeast China, had gathered young women of marriage age to sign a public pledge to reject high bride prices. The Chinese have wedding custom in which the man gives money to his future wife’s family as a condition of engagement. This practice is under pressure from a dearth of women following decades of China's one child policy. The local government, describing the event earlier this year in a notice on its website, said it hoped people would abandon such backward customs and do their part to start a new civilized trend.”

"As China faces a shrinking population, officials are cracking down on an ancient tradition of betrothal gifts to try to promote marriages, which have been on the decline. Known in Mandarin as caili, the payments have skyrocketed across the country in recent years — averaging $20,000 in some provinces — making marriage increasingly unaffordable."

Chinese officials see the lavish payments as an urgent problem that could hinder economic development and trigger social instability. Census data indicates that China will need 36 million women to close the gender gap by 2030. The cost of a bad communist policy is generational.

Until next time, travel safe.