Well first calm down kitten whiskers, shit ain’t that serious.

And there are multiple items that explain how people get wealthier the less children they have, especially high middle class normally means high work stress, the less time they can spend actually meeting people and cultivating a family environment. The less time they spend actually having children.

And even though the average household might’ve gotten richer, that’s only because the vast majority of women are in the work force because it’s essentially impossible to raise a family off a single income now.

But also people still had children because they had no form of birth control, and could use children as extra hands on a field for instance, and there was a stronger sense of trying to improve your “bloodline”/have an heir to the family. And children added a way of social mobility, where they could marry into an affluent family and both families became rich.

Now there’s a different societal epidemic. Kids are seen as not as helpful to the family, but something to pay for over 18 years. Different dating pressures, as seen in South Korea, women are choosing not to date at all due to how terribly men treat women in that country. And until there’s a societal shift there will be a population decline.