China is one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child, relative to its GDP per capita, a prominent Chinese think tank said on Wednesday as it detailed the time and opportunity costs for women who opt to have children in the country.
The cost of raising a child until they are 18 relative to per capita GDP is around 6.3 times in China versus 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 4.11 times in the U.S. and 4.26 times in Japan, said a report by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute.
But that’s because, in average, Chinese parents always want the top for the kid. Private school, private afterschool, piano lessons, other stuff.
I know many Chinese parents that are living paycheck to paycheck because they need (want) to pay for all the private education because they need to prove that their kid has no wasted potential.
In contrast, for example, we Italians we are “public school sucks but it’s free so that’s ok for the kid”
If the top of the pyramid is the only place perceived to be worth living in, everyone will claw their way up the slopes.