[DetroitThrow]

I see what you're saying, but our choices really do result in either negative outcomes for us as individuals by having to eat increasingly large costs of child rearing at the expense of agency/disposable income/enjoyment, or negative outcomes for us as a collective in which we put a greater societal burden on the individuals of the next generations. We could ignore the latter choice's consequence and go about living blissfully, but I think that's a choice to delay our awareness of that consequence until it's right upon us. For the most part, people weren't previously coerced into having babies - it was a great cultural pride for my parents and their parents.

Nowadays, I hear my friends say "I wish we could have kids sooner, but we can't afford the house in the nice neighborhood/the detriment to our careers/a quality education/healthcare..." in contrast to the stories from a couple generations ago about how a union job could support a whole household or that almost everyone could afford healthcare. It's quite bleak.