China in the year 2020: A sausage fest

The human mind has an unlimited capacity for rationalizing convienent behavior. In many situations this prevents us from going bezerk in reaction to mundane annoyances...

You're sitting in traffic for an hour trying to get home after a mind-numbingly exhausting day at work when some bozo pins you in a thru lane so you can't get to your exit ramp. Do you (a) run him off the road then pull him out of his car and beat him until his face resembles raw meatloaf 0r (b) curse under your breath and suck it up; besides karma says the jerk will get what's coming to him someday?

If we always picked (a) one could imagine there'd be a lot less of us living on this planet. On the other hand, the very fact that we pick (b) so frequently has meant that there are a lot less of us living on this planet. China's one child policy is the epitome of this phenomena. Women in China are being taxed, forced to have abortions, or are even sterilized for having more than one child. The first glance result; fewer kids. The second glance result; by 2020 there will be 40 million more Chinese men than women. They'll have to come up with some killer pick-up lines.

We should be outraged enough that women and families are having their right to procreate stolen. But this policy also engenders a perverse culture of gender discrimination leading to the infaticide of millions of unborn females. Where is the outrage?

If you're like me, I can tell you where it is. It's in the same place it is when you get cut off on the highway; under your breath, in the privacy of your car. It's in any of a thousand places, but none that will make a difference.