Anonymous wrote:In Italy the women don't have children because they know the men will do nothing to help raise the children and will cheat on them.

YES

Because they get no help from their spouses, so why should they have kids and spend their lives running, running and never catching up?

Because they get no help from their spouses, so why should they have kids and spend their lives running, running and never catching up?

Anonymous wrote:materialism and secularism means that you have no contract with the future.

what the hell doe sthis mean? I am secular and I worry constantly about the state of our future and the environment. I have kids and that's why I worry.

Birth rates are higher in lower educated, more religious populations. So, in the US, the hispanics tend to have more kids and European descendants have less kids. The fastest growing population in the US are hispanics because they are religious and undereducated.

IN general, the more educated and prosperous a country is, the less children they have. Not sure about Greece, but Germany is highly educated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone told me about one of his coworkers who went to *I think* Iceland on a work assignment. It was for a couple of months and the contract got extended. During that time he met an Icelandic woman and got her pregnant. When his project was over, he was planning to return to the US but they wouldn't let him. They took his passport, made him stay there and pressured him into marrying his pregnant girlfriend. Years later, he still lives there. Happy with his family and unexpectedly adopted country.

Um, who is this "they" you are speaking of?

The government? Not the woman's family. I can't remember if they took his passport at the airport or maybe before then. They take family very seriously over there.

Anonymous wrote:Someone told me about one of his coworkers who went to *I think* Iceland on a work assignment. It was for a couple of months and the contract got extended. During that time he met an Icelandic woman and got her pregnant. When his project was over, he was planning to return to the US but they wouldn't let him. They took his passport, made him stay there and pressured him into marrying his pregnant girlfriend. Years later, he still lives there. Happy with his family and unexpectedly adopted country.

Um, who is this "they" you are speaking of?

Someone told me about one of his coworkers who went to *I think* Iceland on a work assignment. It was for a couple of months and the contract got extended. During that time he met an Icelandic woman and got her pregnant. When his project was over, he was planning to return to the US but they wouldn't let him. They took his passport, made him stay there and pressured him into marrying his pregnant girlfriend. Years later, he still lives there. Happy with his family and unexpectedly adopted country.

As a counter example, Iceland has one of the highest fertility rates in Europe. In 2008, the country had one of the biggest financial crises the world had ever seen. And it had a baby boom after the crisis.

Not that poster you are talking to but it is kinda a red flag to be that old. You're supposedly independent but living with your parents? Why are you in debt besides educational debt? Unless living with your parents at that age is cultural... But if it is cultural, aren't people in those cultures usually married and have kids way before 28 even if they end up living with their family?

Anonymous wrote:The birth rates in the U.S. are at an all-time low. Or at least they were a year ago.

Does that mean that we don't value our future here as well?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/27/us-birth-rate-sets-record_n_697131.html

We'll continue to grow through immigration--as we've done historically.

As far as the original question: birth rates are falling among European women because they're increasingly educated. Women with a high level of educational attainment tend to have falling birth rates. That's as true in the US as it is in Europe. Except among certain religious sub-sects.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The economy sucks. Jobs are difficult to come by. Finding housing is close to impossible. And b/c they can rely on family (b/c family means something to Europeans - unlike it does here), there's no pressure to move out.I have family who's proof of what I've written above.

And you think this is a good thing?

Right, there is nothing more attractive than a 28 year old still living at "home" with mama and daddy....

Hmmm let's see a 28 year old who paid off all his/her debt, saves money and has a nice family. Yeah, you are right...red flag. They should be heavily in debt and on their own!

The birth rates in the U.S. are at an all-time low. Or at least they were a year ago.

Does that mean that we don't value our future here as well?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/27/us-birth-rate-sets-record_n_697131.html

Anonymous wrote:OT but does anyone know any immigrants who a) were not well off before they came over, b) became US citizens or do not plan to return to their home country and c) do not or do not plan on having children?

I am an immigrant from the former USSR and an American citizen, and in my wider group of friends with a similar background, I know of only one childless couple (actually, I believe he has a child from a previous marriage.) Most have at least two children, well above the average "back home".

While I think it is true that the less educated immigrants and the religious have a lot to do with the US higher birthrates, I think that when it comes to birthrates among secular, educated women with careers, the article someone quoted is correct. What the US lacks in terms of generosity (subsidized child care, paid maternity leave, free college education) it makes up for with more flexibility plus relatively low taxes and cheap housing.