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.
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