Are families important?

Recently I read an article about the trend toward the single lifestyle, as a parent or just solo. Here are a few statistics: in 1950 there were about 22% of adults single, today that's up to 50%, in 1950 four million Americans were single, today that is 32 million, in Sweden 47% of households are single people with Stockholm in particular standing at 60%, in Taiwan 30% of women between 30 and 34 are single while just 30 years ago it was 2%. There are, of course, endless opinions as to why this is happening and whether it is a good trend or a bad one. I remember back in the 1960's there was serious concern about zero population growth because we couldn't sustain life for an endlessly growing population. Russ and I were, at first, determined not to have any more than 2 children.
My perspective has changed as I have gained more knowledge and experience. (thank goodness- it would be a shame if we DIDN'T mature from what we were in our teens and early twenties!) I read an article, several years ago, about the increasing problem in Japan with less than zero population growth. As our medical awareness increases, our lifespan increases. Japan has senior centers full of people too old to work and needing support by others. At the other end of the spectrum, young people are feeling the pinch of having to support the older generation, either through taxes or personally, so they feel they can't afford to have children. The result is a "top-heavy" population where there are fewer and fewer wage earners needing to support a larger aging population. I suppose in the long run it could work itself out. Eventually all the old folks will die off. So in the meantime, we have buildings being built to house those who are choosing to live, increasingly, alone. As the population ultimately dwindles, there may be fewer aged people to support but the buildings will gradually become vacant. That will include stores because there are fewer people shopping, as well as every other type of business that supports humans. Don't get me wrong. I'm not proposing that the solution is to all just jump in and have as many children as we possibly can. That would be disastrous. Besides, not everyone is really effective at parenting and we don't want a surge of untaught, un-nurtured citizens to ransack the world.
Actually, my biggest concern isn't even about the economics. I am worried about the increase in self-centeredness. I know that, as a mother, I learned pretty quickly that I could NOT put myself first. When there is a helpless infant that requires food or a diaper change or some other kind of attention, it didn't matter what I had been planning to do or how I was feeling. But that is not a bad thing. Self-sacrifice truly does build character. You are a better world citizen if you are capable of recognizing the suffering of others, especially when compared to your own. Sometimes we can look at ourselves and think, "I really need attention right now". For instance, when you have been in an accident and are bleeding profusely or if you are lost and need help finding your way or if you are intensely grieving over an unexpected loss. But sometimes we get carried away worrying about how our hair looks or how well our car runs or whether we can afford the vacation we want to take when there are people in the world who have lost their hair due to chemo treatments or don't own a car or have a home, much less a chance to go on vacation. Families are a little microcosm of society in general. In your family you can learn how to get along with people who have different ideas from yours. Your life can be really miserable if those closest to you are unhappy or suffering. You learn that the world doesn't revolve around you. You experience the reward of sacrifice for others and seeing how important you are to others. I guess we would all get along alright if we all lived alone. But I think it would, in the end, create less tolerance. If you are accustomed to only being concerned about yourself, why should you make the effort to understand or help others? I'm sure single people spend time doing good work, volunteering at places and making donations. But you always have the choice to do that on your own terms. If you are alone, you never HAVE to get up in the night for a child who has had a nightmare or stomach ache. You never HAVE to give up the new dress or concert tickets because your child needs braces. You end up having more sympathy, even empathy, and yes- tolerance. You learn that you can love a really obnoxious human who throws tantrums while they're learning to be more pleasant. You learn that rules are the only way things can work effectively. If everyone lives with different rules, there is constant resentment, anger, frustration, and misery. It's hard to learn to live with others. But it's a good kind of hard. Opposition is required to build any kind of strength. When we avoid opposition, we become weaker. That doesn't mean we have to go out looking for a fight. It just means that the more we avoid sacrifice, learning to compromise to get along, and responsibility, the more hollow we are. Any strength we exhibit on the outside is shallow and eventually we'll break.
Nope. I can't condone the trend toward being single. I really don't think it's good for us.