Unfortunately, personal experience has jaded the crap out of me.  I have a cousin who got pregnant.  Her boyfriend went to jail for abuse, the child is stuck on a feeding tube for life.  She visited him in jail and ended up pregnant a second time by the same guy...  people are so dumb.  

But I am sure most people aren't as stupid and worthless as my family.  I am so glad I moved 5,000 miles away from those morons.  

Do you have a source for selfishness being the cause behind less children? From everything I’ve read about declining birth rates, as countries become more developed and women have better access to things like contraceptives, education & careers, they are having kids later and since it gradually gets more difficult for women to get pregnant starting in their 30s, having kids later means having less kids in general.

So anyone who doesn't have kids is selfish now? WTF?

Someone deciding to not have kids because they don't think they can afford it, is not selfishness.  

Selfishness requires a lack of consideration for others. It's about putting yourself ahead of others. Not wanting kids is not selfish, because you don't owe other people children. 

Some people are deciding to not have kids out of selflessness. With climate change considerations, not having a kid is probably the single best thing a normal person can do to help the world. 

With that said, I do think there are a lot of issues where people are losing their sense of community. There are a lot of people that do not want children in their space whatsoever. There are communities like childfree, who just strongly believe that kids are a burden. As if it's just really easy for us to shove our kids into a closet for 18 years and have them be functional adults, and we're just choosing not to; and we're just selfish a-holes for bringing our kids onto an airplane or something. 

There are definitely some selfish people like that, but there's nothing selfish about not wanting kids for themselves. 

I don't have kids. I will never have kids.

1) Conservatives wouldn't like it as it's not a traditional family dynamic.
2) 100~ million children are living in the streets across the planet. We don't need more children if we can't even look after the current ones. - So let the LGBT community adopt?
...But again, conservatives wouldn't like it.
3) I have a busy career and simply don't have the time.
4) My rescue career is not a guaranteed SAFE workplace and I may never go home, not going to subject a child to that.

The biggest issue is people judging others and comparing them to their own standards, which is simply a toxic and incorrect perspective.
We are all different and have different goals, desires and ambitions, we should be FREE to live life the way we want, not how someone with a judgmental attitude demands.
And if that means you don't want kids, that is your right as a free individual in my opinion.

And if that somehow makes me "selfish" then I suggest you analyze what I do for my community and country.

I agree with Pem 100%

Let me also add, that I have never wanted to have kids for two reasons:

1. I like to drink, hell I'm drinking right now, and I have never been married, and I don't want to drink in front of a wife and any kids.

2. When I was a kid, my father would spank me (He was a US Marine with service in Vietnam) but today, you can't spank your kids - they call it child abuse in 2024. You have to give them a timeout.  I'm sorry people, spanking works, I got the message by the age of 10. Timeouts don't work which is why the kids of today are lazy, stupid fucks, with a zero work ethic.

Support from Bernie Sanders and AOC for Biden is a bit concerning, not because I think they're wrong, but because I think they have been contributing for a lot of Biden surprisingly progressive policies during his first term, and I'm worried the reason they don't want Biden to be replaced is because they know the alternatives will not champion that very same progressive agenda which won me, and a lot of Biden skeptics, over.

While I believe that beating Trump is important, but it's also important not to go back to neo-liberal era that allowed for someone like Trump's rise to begin with. Fingers crossed.

What can I say? Focusing on your own career is indeed selfish. And there is nothing wrong with that. But it is what it is.

Women who focus on their own education and career instead of their husband's is indeed more selfish. But again there is nothing wrong with that. I am not saying it is a particularly bad thing.

Women Who had to give up everything for their family at a ripe young age are the most selfless. Same thing with men but in a completely different way.

I think it's because they don't have someone who is good enough to change the ride in 4 months. 

Because it isn't. 

By definition, selfishness is with a disregard to other people. 

Buying yourself a pack of gum isn't selfish. Buying yourself a pack of gum so that someone else can't have it, is selfish. 

Focusing on your career isn't selfish. Abandoning your husband/wife to focus on your career is selfish. 

Raising kids because you want cheap labor to work on your farm, is not selfless. 

Selfishness is not the absence of selflessness, or vice versa. There are plenty of things that are neither. Not having kids is not selfish or selfless. 

My wife and I started a family young (at 21) and have a lot of kids by todays standards (4 kids) and no, I don’t feel any more selfless/less selfish than people who choose to start families later on.

Getting an education/career before starting a family can actually be because you think it will help you be a better parent or be able to provide for your kids better.

It’s starting to shift but the view has been that going to college will get you a better paying job and having a good paying job will increase your odds of being able to afford a home in a safe community with a well funded school district. I wouldn’t call that line of thinking selfish.