There used to be a saying, "it takes a village to raise a child." This was a very real phenomenon where kids would run around an entire town, and everyone felt

There used to be a saying, "it takes a village to raise a child." This was a very real phenomenon where kids would run around an entire town, and everyone felt responsible for them. This structure has fallen apart in the last 100-150 years or so as wealth, individuality, and other factors you note have dominated western, especially American, life, although the same thing has happened widely in Europe. Thus the burden, instead of being born by many and therefore not being "so bad", is instead entirely born by 2 or 1 and it is of course that multiple more work. If 25 people would have shared the burden before, you, alone, are now doing all of it, along with the burdens of increased costs, expectations, responsibilities, etc. It's no wonder that raising kids is such a non-starter for many. The solution, from my point of view, is not to not have kids. That just promotes losing our humanity. For me it is to change those structures that make family so hard. If we lose what makes us human... wtf is the point of all the things we build.