(Originally published 1/14/07 on journalstar.com)

Count your blessings.

By 2020, the men in China of “marriagable age” ( between 20 and 45 years old) will outnumber the women by more the 30 million.

Why? China’s one-child-per-couple policy that was first put into effect about 25 years ago to control population growth is having unexpected consequences.

In China, baby boys are more highly valued than girls since sons traditionally care for their parents in retirement. The one-child-per-couple rule means that each couple has one chance at being taken care of in retirement.

It’s no coincidence that baby girls in China are aborted much more often than boys. Or that baby girls in Chinese orphanages far outnumber the baby boys. Human rights groups also point out that the number of infant deaths of baby girls in China is way out of proportion from the rest of the world. There’s lots of information out there on this topic that I don’t have time to get into… but I’ll say the more you study the situation, the more disturbing it becomes.

So, now, China is dealing with this extreme gender imbalance. What a difference that would make in the young singles culture. Imagine being a young woman in China – you’d be looked at as something highly valuable and desirable, just for being a single woman.

That American stereotype of the “woman desperate to get married and guy just wanting to explore his options” would be pretty much nonexistent. As a woman in that kind of environment, I think would be hard not to become a bit of a brat. It would be tough not to take on the attitude of “It’s called supply and demand buddy, and I’m in demand.”

And then there’s the poor men. Men whose population has been unintentionally manipulated, making their chances of growing old alone alarmingly high. As this generation of single guys grows up and the reality of it all dawns on them, they’re becoming angry and frustrated. Now China is considering how they’ll deal with the very real possibility of social instability as 30 million lonely men look for an outlet for their frustration.

It’s interesting to see world governments turn their eyes to the the power of loneliness… acknowledging that love and companionship isn’t something silly and frivolous but something as key to a strong country as employment and health care . A lonely, frustrated generation can be a dangerous one.

So, guys, next time you’re feeling miserably single, take comfort in the fact that there are roughly the same number of miserably single women sitting on the other side of the room. The odds are with you.