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“But as Last points out, the fertility rate for white, college-educated American women – a proxy for the US middle class – is 1.6. “In other words, America has created its very own ‘One-Child’ policy. It’s soft and unintentional, the result of accidents of history and thousands of little choices. But it has been just as effective.””

Very well stated, and applies to EVERY country that does it. The bottom line is that if women are given the choice of kids or lots of money, but not both, many will go the money route - typically by either not having kids, not having as many kids, and (almost always) delaying whatever kids they have.

It’s all good and well to say that’s fine and if that’s what a free country allows - but countries do not exist simply as a place for the present generation to get old and die off, they also are intended to last a bit longer than that. And with what we have, along with Western and Central Europe and much of Asia, there won’t be much left in a couple of generations.

Oh yea, we can laugh as the idiot Muslim countries for being backwards, but they have figured this out and use their own means (however brutal) to assure continued population growth.

There are options available to Western countries to address the problem...but they’re likely gone too far politically to have the stomach for it.

One major issue for women is what I call, “The Great Lie.”

We’re taught that we’re supposed to ‘have it all’. A great career and a well-adjusted family. This is the goal of most girls. (Although this is what they feel they *should* do, not what they really want. I read a study last year that showed that the majority of young women would choose to be SAHMs.)

So girls hold off on marriage and child-bearing. Not realizing that fertility begins to drop at age 28 and plunges rapidly after that.

A girl who marries under 22 without a college degree is scorned. A woman who gets her degree, then marries and stays home with the children is considered to be ‘wasting her degree’. Add to that the student loan burden she’s now carrying into her marriage and you’ve got instant financial problems.

The fact is that it takes time and energy to raise children. Working moms feel horrible guilt for having someone else raise her kids, but doesn’t feel like she has much of a choice.

Add to all of that the difficulty of finding a man who’s willing to marry and support a wife and children and it gets harder still. (Heck, in this economy, it’s hard to find a guy who CAN support a wife and children.) The high divorce rate gives her a sense of insecurity. She knows that she can find herself on her own - with small children depending on her alone - any time.

So women wait too long or they limit the size of their family to what they can realistically manage while working.

And one more thing: Modern parenting is insane. The expectations that your little darlings will NEVER be unattended or get into the smallest bit of trouble is daunting. Even a 14 year old getting hurt when left at home raises eyebrows. “Why weren’t you watching him?” G-d forbid your son falls out of a tree and breaks his arm.

When my 15 year old daughter fell while rollerblading and broke her arm, they called in social services. It happened in a public place with a hundred witnesses and that’s what saved our butts.

The constant threat of child abuse accusations keep every parent on edge. Lord help you if you’re homeschooling.