Why is Europe losing the will to breed?

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I don´t think it´s that an economic issue in europe. There is much migration, I don´t have an interest in “more german children in germany” - I simply don´t care, children are children. Ok, maybe rates are falling also in the middle east, but not in a problematic number.

I understand more the mental effect of less children. It´s a sociel issue first.
 
As a European, I think that this problem has many root causes, not just one.
There are always exceptions, but as a rule, I do not believe that it has really anything to do with financials, most European countries now do support families with children financially - I think it is way more than what is offered in the U.S.
Imho, the main factor is that individual fulfillment is the most important thing today for any average European.
The job, hobbies, friends, travelling are all much more attractive than getting up at 3 am because the little one does not stop crying. People have the choice not to get children and they at least delay it as much as possible, ending up with only one or two at most.
The expected ideal is to schedule everything perfectly, i.e. the job, the fitness club, yoga, going to Paris over the weekend, ski holidays, going out with friends four days a week and so on.
Children make all of this so much harder and less fun.
They cry all the time, they get sick when you want to go skiing, they throw up on the new carpet, they will not let you watch your favorite TV show in the evening because they would rather play with dad.
So in short: Children are a nuisance. You try to avoid nuisances.
 
Living in The Netherlands, I would have to agree with @Constantin that individualism
is the root cause, though there are also several underlying factors such as materialism, envy and selfishness.

The issue with individualism is that it has replaced values that once focused on community, religion, family and a sense of social cohesion. The private good is more important for most than the public good, and as a consequence many people seek fulfillment for themselves as if they were independent of a greater social context. The younger generation attribute their self-worth on working towards a larger purpose and what they achieve in life. Thus raising children is seen as a hindrance to accomplishing their goals.
 
michaelArc said:
Living in The Netherlands, I would have to agree with @Constantin that individualism
is the root cause, though there are also several underlying factors such as materialism, envy and selfishness.

The issue with individualism is that it has replaced values that once focused on community, religion, family and a sense of social cohesion. The private good is more important for most than the public good, and as a consequence many people seek fulfillment for themselves as if they were independent of a greater social context. The younger generation attribute their self-worth on working towards a larger purpose and what they achieve in life. Thus raising children is seen as a hindrance to accomplishing their goals.
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Maybe some women don’t want to be viewed as breeding machines. Shouldn’t each person have the right to chart their own course?
 
Breeding machines? Maybe you are thinking of a different continent, and perhaps century for that matter.

Of course everyone have the right to chart their own course. This is why family values have taken a back seat to … I’ll let you fill in the blanks.
 
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michaelArc said:
Breeding machines? Maybe you are thinking of a different continent, and perhaps century for that matter.

Of course everyone have the right to chart their own course. This is why family values have taken a back seat to … I’ll let you fill in the blanks.
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A back seat to what? Should women have the right to not have children or not?
 
Why is Europe losing the will to breed?
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Because it’s full of selfish people obsessed with their “quality of life”, “finding themselves”, and “being free”.

Don’t worry though…it just means all the liberals will die off and be replaced by Catholics and Muslims.

😀
 
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Seriously? You’re asking me this? What’s next, do people have the right to be happy?
 
michaelArc said:
Seriously? You’re asking me this? What’s next, do people have the right to be happy?
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And yet, apparently, if a woman opts not to have children, then somehow she’s defying the moral order?
 
What I find amusing to me is that you automatically assume from my original statement that it’s an issue among women not wanting to have children.
 
HerCrazierHalf said:
Is it practical to expect a population to always grow? Seems we setup ourselves for trouble when we developed systems that depend on infinite growth.

Might be economically tough, but maybe we are overdue for a smaller population?
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We can readily adapt to modest changes in the rate. It’s sever changes that can introduce economic turmoil.

If our growth tips under the replacement rate, it actually means we can live equally well with lower economic growth, since we don’t need extra jobs to employ a rapidly expanding work force.
 
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niceatheist said:
Maybe some women don’t want to be viewed as breeding machines. Shouldn’t each person have the right to chart their own course?
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Would you tell that to Muslims who think the womb is a weapon, or this commentary just reserved for Catholics?
 
There is a number of reasons why Europe’s population is declining.

As others have stated, contraception and materialism are two big reasons. Children cost money, so a lot of people there would rather have a vacation home or a nice car than children. They use methods to have sex without risk of pregnancy, and whey they get pregnant they are more likely to murder their child in the womb. Conversely when they do have children the children are born fewer and later.

Another important thing to note is xenophobia. In the United States people are also having fewer children, but our population is not in decline because a large number of immigrants are coming to our country. This is because in America there’s this romanticised idea that (whether true or not) the country is a Land Of Opportunity where being American has nothing to do with race - if you were born here you are an American, and if you are naturalized then you are an American. Conversely, many other countries lack birthright citizenship - as a result a family could be living in Italy or Denmark for generations without any of them being citizens - and are less willing to accept immigrants.

This actually poses problems, because a country that doesn’t replenish itself ends up with a large number of elderly people and too few working age people to care for them.
 
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Europe isn’t losing the will to breed. It’s just losing the will to breed reflexively. People aren’t just having kids to have kids. People aren’t having more kids than they can afford to support. People are realizing that they don’t have to marry and reproduce to have meaning in their life.
 
Padres1969 said:
People are realizing that they don’t have to marry and reproduce to have meaning in their life.
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Oh yeah, they seem real happy. :roll_eyes:

Europeans are a lost people.

Stop trying to run cover for it.
BornInMarch said:
This actually poses problems, because a country that doesn’t replenish itself ends up with a large number of elderly people and too few working age people to care for them.
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Replenish with what? Unskilled workers and German bailouts?
 
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Replenish its population. I fail to see how this is confusing.
 
Personally I find that most things are more fun with kids around.

I find it strange that we always talk about how expensive children are. Do we expect that they will never earn more than the cost of their upbringing? Are they going to go directly from parents home to the welfare rolls? If so, that’s an entirely different social problem.

But once we have all achieved our life goals, vacations, and whatever, maybe someone else’s children will visit us in the nursing home.
 
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