If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans: What Happens When Men Try to Play God

Everyone is familiar with China's population control policies which favor male children. This is a problem that bridges the partisan gap across the board (well, maybe except for Obama, but we don't know because with crucial abortion policies he tends to vote "present" rather than taking a stand). Secretary Hillary Clinton even spoke out against the injustice of families aborting female babies in favor of having a male as their one child (although she continues to endorse abortion in general -- as long as you don't know the sex of the baby it's OK to kill it).

But a curious thing happens when men decide they can use science to trump God's will. Ever heard the quote "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans?" Well China isn't laughing now. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlights the harmful consequences in China that have resulted from their one (preferably male) child policy.

Thanks to its 30-year-old population-planning policy and customary preference for boys, China has one of the largest male-to-female ratios in the world. Using data from the 2005 China census -- the most recent -- a study published in last month's British Journal of Medicine estimates there was a surplus of 32 million males under the age of 20 at the time the census was taken. That's roughly the size of Canada's population.

Now some of these men have reached marriageable age, resulting in intense competition for spouses, especially in rural areas. It also appears to have caused a sharp spike in bride prices and betrothal gifts. The higher prices are even found in big cities such as Tianjin.

Curbing consumption in hopes of connubial pleasure is increasingly the norm in Xin'an Village, or New Peace Village, a lushly verdant spot with 14,000 people, located in central China's Shaanxi province. The village has over 30 men of marriageable age, but no single women.

As in other parts of the country, village customs dictate the groom's family pay the bride's family a set amount -- known as cai li-- while the bride furnishes a dowry of mostly simple household items.

In the 1980s, before the start of China's economic reforms, cai li sums were small.

In the 1990s, cai li prices rose to several thousand yuan (about $200 to $400 at today's conversion rates), mirroring the country's growing prosperity. But it was only starting in 2002-03 that villagers noticed a sharp spike in cai li prices, which shot up to between 6,000 to 10,000 yuan -- several years' worth of farming income.

Not coincidentally, this was also the period when the first generation of children since the family-planning policy was launched in 1979 started reaching marriageable age.

There are multiple tragedies here. The article goes on to describe a heartbreaking story of a young Chinese man who's family lives frugally in order to save up -- and ultimately pay -- five years worth of farming income for the man's new bride. Men in China are shamed if they are not married by age 25, but when their would-be wives have been killed in the womb they are at a loss for finding any females to marry, and those that they do find come with large price tags. This is tragic for the males, who want to find a companion.

Some females, however, have taken it upon themselves to take advantage of the aftermath of these policies, taking the large dowry and running - leaving their new lovestruck husbands and family devastated. Not only is it wrong that men pay for their brides to begin with (that's a topic all to itself) -- but this wouldn't be happening if there were enough women of marriageable age in the country. Chinese policies and abortion of female babies have devastated the social makeup of the country leaving men lonely and shamed and women with no recourse to begin with. Their simple existence in China is miraculous and against all odds.

How this will continue to play out is uncertain, but the outlook does not look good. I truly feel sad for the men and women in this first coming of age generation in a country that has farmed the gender of the population and controlled the male to female ratio. Let this be a lesson to all people: trying to play God and using science, government control, and "legitimized" murder to trump His Will results in tragedy for all.