The value of having one or two children
The problem of demographic rates is very topical for advanced societies. At first sight it looks very strange. The economic level of advanced countries allows parents to have more than two children, while the situation in developing countries is much worse, but it is well-known that these countries don't face such critical demographical problems. In developing countries despite poverty and beggary, people have many children and small families are very rare. A paradox? Maybe, but if we examine this situation carefully, we will understand why it happens so.
There are several reasons for having many children in poor countries. One of these reasons is rather banal. For example some African tribesmen still don't see any link between having sex and childbirth. They still separate these two aspects of life and think that children are born with the assistance of providence. It is not worth surprising that in these countries people have a lot of children despite starvation and poverty.
Another reason for having many children is of spiritual nature. There are countries, where people consider childbirth to be a gift from on high. Each birth of a child means goodwill of gods or angels and a good sign for this family. Usually these families understand their responsibility for their children and rarely reject them.
As you see, the min reasons, which determine the amount of children in a family are not economical and depend on family values. In Europe and USA people are more materialistic. They think more about economical aspects of having children. They tend to think that it is better for them to raise one child, because thus they have an opportunity to give it all the best they can. Additional factors for this decision are careerism and striving for better life and financial welfare. Besides, people in advanced societies are individualists and they tend to think about themselves most of all and less about their relatives and friends. Thus their unwillingness to have many children is a special sort of a masked egoism, which they explain in many ways, but never admit their selfishness.
Egoism is the main factor for the development of advanced countries. Parents pass on this feature to their children and thus the population diminishes. Everything depends on priorities. The main priority for western and westernised civilizations is financial welfare and it determines all values and way of life of people, who compose these societies. This fact explains clearly why small families prevail in Europe and USA.