The slice of the population of ideal child bearing age is too self absorbed to have children. Any parent knows that when you bring a child into the world, the parents´ priorities shift from self to the child. If you do it right, eventually you´ll see your kids as the most pleasurable part of your life. But it takes years of self sacrifice to get there. The twenty somethings are not into self sacrifice.

The twentysomethings need jobs. Their rate of unemployment is far higher than the overall unemployment rate. When they can´t afford a child, they use birth control. If that fails, they turn to abortion. If we want to see more children being born, we need to get the economy back on track so that today´s young people have a smattering of a chance of starting families.

Much of the problem in Japan [AND Korea] ............. is the psychological myopia that ONLY Japanese [or Koreans in Korea] can be Japanese.

Ethnic ´Purity´ predates any 19th - 20th c European beliefs .............. Ethnic discrimination [and nationalism] against Koreans living in Japan after 300+ years, is bedrock to the Japanese mindset ........... let alone other Asians or NON Asians.

Korean Americans visiting their homeland [the ´Hermit Kingdom´] say that Korea is even more so ......... think the murder of any N. Koreans women who have been ´defiled´ by marrying Chinese to escape that nationwide concentration camp ....... let alone ´half blood children.´

Other Asian ethnic societies also have similar views ..... but Japan´s and Korea´s are extreme due to their historic isolation and non exposure to other ethnic populations.

NO Immigration tolerance exists whatever the circumstances or qualification of the ´outsider´ would be immigrants ........ for integrations into their society or nationality id IMPOSSIBLE.

NOTE
Similar population declines and extinctions are also happening in the 21st C in small religious communities [Middle East] that do not allow for conversions of potential marriage partners into their faiths.

the only segment of our US population who bought into the zero population growth nonsense was the WASP children of the greatest generation. so now we look around, and see that we are still stuck paying the bills, but have lots fewer people taking up earning a living to pay them. it is soon time to bitterly cling to our religion and our guns, and hope that we bought enough ammo.

A Cliffnotes version of Steyn´s ´America Alone´. Also a reminder of the same phenomenon that can be seen elsewhere in nature .When the number of predators increases, their prey dimishes proportionately.It takes a reversal of roles and I wonder if we´re up for it?

Check another goal off the Leftist list, population control. Now I´m wondering about the plan for the billions of hollow point bullets the Obama regime has stockpiled.

Great points being made by previous posters, especially about the "self absorbed" part.

The low birth rate statistic and demographic is not the only issue--our nation has far too many births to parents either too young to care for the children themselves, or do not have a way to bring up the children.

This is a vicious cycle that simply throwing more welfare from the government into the mix will not remedy--we are now into our fourth generation of this sort of poverty.

The problem in Japan is bad for them, but they do not have the same problem of mere children having children who cannot often take care of themselves before bringing another life into the world.

It was the Japanese who invented disposable diapers. Their diaper companies now make more adult diapers than baby diapers!
Falling demographics is a big problem for Japan, but time marches on and their population will even out once more.
Consider Ireland, a nation that lost half its population in the mid-19th century, due to the potato famine and immigration. Seven hundred years ago, Europe lost more than one third of its population to the black death. We have to remind ourselves of these catastrophic events because years later, they seem to have never happened.

Government operated pensions (Social Security) cause the declining birthrate. People no longer need children to care for them in their declining years. Individual couples realize that their personal childraising is insignificant.

Agreed, #9. Old people have been voting themselves benefits for years. It is not the selfishness of the young people that creates the problem; it is the selfishness of the old.

After the Obama Apocalypse the US birthrate will go up among people not too lazy to work to survive.

Big families are a boon to those who must catch and/or grow their own food.
.

#10, please be specific..exactly WHAT benefits have old people voted for themselves?
Were you around for WW2, Korean conflict, Viet Nam? Have you worked for 45 years and paid taxes?
Please elaborate.