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The population decrease is driven partly by economics, true. Modern advanced economies are structured so that many wives have to work in order to support their families. And college education is prohibitively expensive for more than one or two children.

BUT. The main reason for the decrease is cultural nihilism and defeatism. As they lose their faith, people see no purpose in life. Why work for the future and bring children into the world?

My wife and I have a very large family. The financial burden has been crushing, and we're not yet through the tunnel. But it has been worth it. I'd rather have lots of wonderful children and money problems than no children and a lot of expensive toys. The plain fact of the matter is that most modern Europeans think differently. They'd rather have the toys and the comfortable lifestyle.

As for immigration, the US has one enormous advantage over Europe. Our immigrants are Catholic hispanics, theirs are Muslim Arabs, Muslim Pakistanis, and Muslim Africans. Our immigrants are a problem, but NOTHING like theirs are going to be.

Agree with you on most.
Pre WW11 as well as WW1 the average German women had 7-8 children. Those were hard times and throughout history, the harder the times,the more children they had.
Now take the time of the "Wirtschftswunder". Germans had never experience such prosperity in their history. The problem was that the new found wealth didn't come with instructions. They decided to prop up their Social system and make promises they now can't keep.
"La dolce Vita" became the new slogan and young people took advantage of it.They brought in their "modern slaves" from different countries to do the work the regular German didn't want to do anymore.
The college argument is also not something they can complain about, since education is "free". Of course, now the Government has no money and is trying to have some co-pay instituted. You see a lot of protests all over the place. It is easy to give, but damn hard to take away? :-)