The self-absorption ignores the centuries of travail that made today’s comforts possible. It adds nothing to the well-being of the next generation. The loss of
“old-fashioned” knowledge, morals, work ethic, sense of community, etc. bodes ill for the next few generations. I feel sorry for them.
I put a good portion of the blame for low birthrates on government. Your children are no longer yours. The state has taken them from you. The state controls how you can discipline your children, what and how you can teach your children. They tell you to strap them into car seats approved by the government. They will soon tell you what you have to feed your children. You are just a child care provider hired by the state to take care of the state’s children, and if you don’t take care of them to their liking, they’ll take “your” children from you and give them to another hireling.
It’s no wonder people don’t want to reproduce. Who’d want to bring children into an oppressive, totalitarian existence like that?