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StatGuy is a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

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Split personality? Mood swings? Well, sometimes.

"Who could ask for more?" I could ask for the cash to buy one of these babies.

via Binks.

Demographers have been warning for decades that the birth rate in Germany is far too low to replace the existing population.

The number of Germans has declined by 3.2 million — the population of Berlin — over the last 30 years but demographers' concerns have mostly been ignored until now in a country scarred by the Nazis' nefarious procreation pressures.
. . .
Germans are at risk of dying out if the trend continues, said Harald Michel, managing director of the Institute for Applied Demography. He fears the German population could shrink from 75 million to 50 million by 2050 and further after that.

The birth rates have been below the replacement rate for 35 years — a lethal development, he added. Germans could become an 'endangered people.' It's hypothetical now but we may have to think about 'the last German' at some point. The problem is compounded each generation. Children not born 30 years ago obviously aren't there to have children now.

If Germany is to survive, its anti-child/anti-family culture will have to change radically.

Germany needs a fundamental change of attitude towards the family, 38-year-old Annette Zill believes. The truth of the matter is you have to act as if you don't have children. You have to apologise for it, said the mother of 10-month-old Karl Friedrich.
. . .
But women here are under no illusion that you can have a great career and bring up your child. In Germany you're seen as a huge risk factor. Employers won't openly say they've got anything against children. But your heart sinks if they ask, 'What will you do if your child is sick?' Then you're constantly left with a bad conscience - towards your employer and your child.

As far as some German employers are concerned, apparently, children only reduce worker productivity. With that attitude, no wonder Germany is set to lose a third of its population in the next generation. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is encouraging German women to have more babies. The point person in this effort is Mrs Merkel's Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen, who has seven children of her own.

She says that Germany is extremely backward in its attitude towards the family. Unless the birth rate rises, we will have to turn out the light.

Ms von der Leyen has proposed a series of radical measures to encourage Germans to have more babies, including compulsory paid leave for fathers of newborns.

Here's more information on the demographic outlook in Germany.