Insightful, I agree with a lot of these. A lot of my peer group somewhat reluctantly had kids, and were pleasantly surprised by the experience of having famili

Insightful, I agree with a lot of these. A lot of my peer group somewhat reluctantly had kids, and were pleasantly surprised by the experience of having families and settling down. A handful of very left leaning female friends eschewed pursuing relationships for career growth and academia, and they are quite vocally regretful of not having families. I'm not saying societal pressure to pair up and have a family was always good in all circumstances, but for a subset of the population, it was probably a net win to be 'pressured' into marriage and kids. Finally, I do think the fall of organized religion plays into this. When I attended a somewhat liberal church, I would regularly talk to people of all age groups, of various political leanings and careers and economic groups. Now that I'm not attending church, I mostly interact with other intelligent tech folks who are well to do, or their wives/girlfriends/husbands, or people in my neighborhood (who are also well off). I can see how this might slowly breed tribalism and an echo chamber, and I'm sure it applies in other areas as well.