The defaults changed, at least in the West.
When I was little it was still married-with-children by default, probably at relatively young age, and people had to decide not to have children. That was in part helped by the lack of widespread use of contraceptives. The norm in my primary school was two or three kids per family. I remember only one classmate with no brothers or sisters. Of course zero children families were not represented in there.
Now the default is single-no-children and you have to make an explicit choice to marry (you used to be nudged into it by society) and to have kids, by stopping to use contraceptives and to do all the things that long time singles are used to do.
Cost of housing, living, parenting is also an issue but I think that the default mindset is more important and sets the conditions for higher general costs: if on average people can spend all their money for themselves, the society and the market adjust and people who have to spend time and money also for kids are at a disadvantage.
If the default is changing in China too, their population is going to shrink no matter what.
When I was little it was still married-with-children by default, probably at relatively young age, and people had to decide not to have children. That was in part helped by the lack of widespread use of contraceptives. The norm in my primary school was two or three kids per family. I remember only one classmate with no brothers or sisters. Of course zero children families were not represented in there.
Now the default is single-no-children and you have to make an explicit choice to marry (you used to be nudged into it by society) and to have kids, by stopping to use contraceptives and to do all the things that long time singles are used to do.
Cost of housing, living, parenting is also an issue but I think that the default mindset is more important and sets the conditions for higher general costs: if on average people can spend all their money for themselves, the society and the market adjust and people who have to spend time and money also for kids are at a disadvantage.
If the default is changing in China too, their population is going to shrink no matter what.