perhaps, but if it was a major reason then we should see higher natality among people with more money, instead we see a higher birthrate among poorer people (wh

perhaps, but if it was a major reason then we should see higher natality among people with more money, instead we see a higher birthrate among poorer people (which obviously is correlated with education and career chances), even in Italy (compare birthrate between north/center/south). In Italy people in the highest income bracket _do_ have more kids but only when they are older (>45yo), presumably having reached some kind of stability. Poorer people evidently don't care. So, I am not saying we shouldn't help people have more kids, we totally should, but I don't think it will push the numbers up by much: if you consider places with "famous" social support services and a less-fucked-up-economy, e.g. Finland, birthrate is also steadily decreasing.