this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
145 points (98.0% liked)

World News

51337 readers
2117 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

From 1 January, contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – part of a carrot-and-stick approach by the government to increase births

China is set to impose a value-added tax (VAT) on condoms and other contraceptives for the first time in three decades, as the country tries to boost its birthrate and modernise its tax laws.

From 1 January, condoms and contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – a tax from which the goods have been exempt since China introduced nationwide VAT in 1993.

The measure was buried in a VAT law passed in 2024 in an effort to modernise China’s tax regime. VAT accounts for nearly 40% of China’s total tax revenue.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Makes sense. I guess that's why the poorest people have the least children.

Oh, wait:

That's why I was asking for a source. Your theories have no backing in reality. The truth is that people simply don't want to have a lot of kids because it's a chore. Society puts pressure on people to form a family by constant propaganda in popular media and by using peer pressure (once all your friends have kids all they do is stuff for kids. people without children are left out). My guess is poor people have more kids because they don't have family planning education and resources to do it. Once you satisfy the societal need to form a family unit (usually by having one child) there's no more pressure and people stop having children. I'm sure there are many people that would like to have one child by can't afford it (or they think they can't afford it) and government can help them but no matter what you do people will not go back to having 4 or 5 kids. There's no "natural drive" to do it.

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

$200k isn’t sufficiently rich:

Do people you know just not like their kids? Parents generally really like their offspring.

There’s definitely some biology involved. For example, women can forget the pain of childbirth.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 2 hours ago

Interesting. I looks like it starts going up around the 1% threshold again. This is the level where kids are not a chore anymore. People have nannies to take care of the kids when they wake up at night, change diapers, feed them, drive them to school and so on. Maybe you're right. When you hit a level of income that lets you have kids and live your life at the same time people will opt for more kids. You know what? You convinced me. We should aim for making everyone a millionaire. I have no idea if it's economically feasible or how would it work but it's a nice goal to have.

Do people you know just not like their kids? Parents generally really like their offspring.

Of course they like their kids but kids are also a major pain in the ass. They are always happy when they can leave kids with grandparents or at childcare. I know a couple where the mother doesn't work and they still leave the kid at childcare. Even during holidays when both of them don't work they still take the kid to childcare. I guess they all aim for the 1% experience of only spending quality time with kids, not having them around all the time.