The next time some uninformed person tells me that we are choosing infertility because children are expensive. This photo was taken during the Depression. Even then, the fertility rate was falling from around 7 during the turn of the 20th century.
The difference was the urbanization of our society and our focus on unsustainable, unhealthy lifestyles and education to support industrialization. The conversation is very difficult, but if our society is to survive the next 40 years, we need to quickly change our lifestyle choices.
This is an extremely emotional discussion because it strikes at the heart of many of our ardently held beliefs and religious paradigms. As one of my friends said, it will take a miracle of God... and that was his only hope. I agree, in about fifty years, 1000 women today will be replaced by only about 250 girl babies. In that time frame, 1000 women today in fundamentalist Muslim nations will result in 6,000 baby girls.
We need to look in the mirror and make choices to change or simply let our nation and its benefits slip away.