Yes, that's a bit cold blooded. And it's unlikely that the children would grow up sane. Still, the numbers don't lie. People are born, people die. If on the average, as an aggregate population, they don't procreat enough to at least replace themselves before they die, their civilisation will vanish.
That doesn't mean individuals should be compelled by force to reproduce, nor does it mean that every fertile individual who declines to reproduce is evil. It's just a statement of fact. If the "average person" in a particular civilisation is not replacing himself, that civilisation is doomed and will be replaced by another civilisation in which the "average person" does bother to replace himself.
To have a child for the wrong reason is cruel--- whether to be a field hand, to be an 'heir' to your name or to outnumber your enemy. The kid knows it....
Again, I agree ... but that's kind of beside the point. Again, if a whole generation or two is, on the average, as an aggregate "bad parent" material (or perceives itself as such) and doesn't reproduce, it will disappear and be replaced.
As a matter of personal opinion, I think there are a great many people in the West who have declined to have children who would be far better parents than they give themselves credit for. I further am convinced that the separation of the two purposes of sexual intercourse (union and procreation) in Western popular culture is largely a cause of folks declining to have children. Hence, my tagline.
You are evading the issue, which is that cultural replacement and biological replacement are separate phenomena.
I think that one of our great advances is that people now can honestly say "I won't be a parent...I may beat my child to death". Instead of the old world attitude of "It's my duty to have kids, no matter how crazy or evil I am".
Granted, I have a darker view of life and the world. I also know that most predictions I hear and read rarely come to fruition. :)
Just because they're birthin' like bunnies doesn't mean that all their rabbits ain't crazy.