Good points that needed to be made. I always fall back to the Dickens quote, more applicable in this year than in almost any other I’ve lived - “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .”. Nothing is static, the birth rate may rise (it has in Hungary due to leadership by PM Orban advocating and supporting larger families). One thing I have noticed in visiting manufacturers is that many of toughest, most dangerous factory jobs are now done by robots.
Orban is a rare treasure in Europe when it comes to having the “far right” desire for his country to remain a place for his countrymen.
Most of the larger, richer European nations have already given up. Or at least their leadership has. They’d rather import millions from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa than try to find ways to encourage their own people have more children.
Still though I agree that that things can change for the better, and it’d probably happen without government intervention. The problem Europe is facing is that by the time natives may possibly decide to have more children they may be minorities in their own lands.
It’d be much better if all of Europe greatly reduced immigration from outside the continent and then just lived with the consequences. The pain involved may spur them to have more children. Either way, it’d be better than Europe becoming an extension of Asia and Africa.