If you've got at least 20 minutes to spare and a few cups of coffee to drink, take some time to read this week's cover story in the New York Times Magazine. The subject: The fact that the birth rate in Europe is declining so drastically, particularly in places like Italy and Greece, that the world may run out of Europeans in the not-too-distant future.

Personally, I zeroed in on the portion of the story that attempts to explain why America's birth rate is higher than pretty much everywhere else in the developed world. (This section is located on page six of the online version, for those of you reading along at home.) Several potential explanations are offered, but Carl Haub of the Population Reference Board believes the most significant factor may be -- and do try not to spit up your coffee as you're reading -- the flexibility that exists in the American workplace. "An American woman might choose to suspend her career for three or five years to raise a family, expecting to be able to resume working; that happens far less easily in Europe," the story notes.

It also notes that, compared with some European nations, office culture here is allegedly more open to flexible hours. It's an interesting point. In general, I think American companies have made great strides in this area in the past decade. More of my friends now have at least partial work-from-home situations that make it easier for them to manage parenthood. But on the whole, I feel like we still have a long way to go.

Maybe I see things the way I do because I work in a particularly competitive industry (media) in a particularly ambitious town (Washington, D.C.). But even though some companies make huge efforts to accommodate the needs of parents, it still seems to me that we are a very career-focused culture, so much so that making time to spend with kids, much less have more of them, is an enormous challenge. In fact, the very technology that allows so many of us the flexibility to work from home also means that it's next to impossible to fully unplug and disconnect from our offices. I'm also not convinced that it's that easy for women to exit and re-enter the work force, either.

One thing that the U.S. government doesn't do to simplify life for parents: Provide subsidies for daycare or payments for the birth of a child. In Norway, the government doles out 4,000 euros when a family has a new addition. And the village of Laviano, Italy, where the birth rate is particularly low, may soon recommit to a previous plan -- offering 10,000 euros, or about $15K, to any woman who conceives and raises a child there. (Hell, for $15,000, I'll stop writing this post and try to make a baby right now.) 

Obviously America doesn't need to resort to such dire measure since we seem to have plenty of kids to go around. The bigger question: Are the experts in this article right about what makes our population in the U.S. continue to grow? Is it the flexibility and the attitude that both moms and dad need to share the responsibilities of parenting? Is it that moms can take breaks from their careers without consequences? Is it something ingrained in our culture, with all its talk of "family values"? Or is it door No. 3: Americans just like to get it on like jack rabbits?