- Joined
- May 24, 2021
Man, this. Just this.People build families when they can look for a purpose beyond their own enjoyment, but Europeans don't believe in any transcendental value - you are born, you have fun, you "make your own choices", you die. Children are both occasionally very much not fun, they force you into maturity, and they expose you by necessity to how much you are not in control.
Every time they get sick, youre anxious; when they grow independent enough that they can make their own mistakes, you pray they don't suffer serious consequences. They grow, and you get old. They cry at night, you have to figure out what's going on.
From the western perspective, the only reason to have children is to satisfy an inborn need, but there are so many ways to distract yourself from it, and they come with fewer strings attached, that eventually the need for reproduction in westerners goes the way of the panda's. And then you get a handful of people still having a single child, and many more enjoying the DINK lifestyle and showcasing to everyone on the fence that they are having much more fun.
Europeans will die out, and it's out of people's hands.
Makes me glad in the US we still have a huge population of people that wanna settle down and have families. Its obviously shrinking as well, but not nearly as much.