I heard this quote recently as an explanation for the low and still declining birth rates. Without God, nation or a grand idea, there is nothing to fight and die for and thus you focus on surviving and enjoying whatever earthly joys you can get. That takes away any drive to procreate and continue the bloodline into the future.
Things being expensive are not the reason why people don't have families and related policies make very little difference.
Why should my kids go to school? To get a job someday? Why? To get money? Why? To live comfortably.
Or you could forgoe all that stuff and live a little less comfortably.
My hardest hurdle in raising kids isn't teaching them skills, or maintaining discipline, or staying on the same page with regards to clown world; it's finding them challenges, especially challenges with comensurate rewards. Without that, they have no reason to even get out of bed.
But what is there to work towards? Savings that can be deflated? A house that can be seized at any time? A family to be poisoned against you?
There's a battle we're fighting for a better life, but it's hard to inspire them when even I don't know what that looks like.
Kids play around freely. You talk to friends and neighbors. Each Mother and Father act as a temporary Mother and Father to all the children at different times; each teaching children different valuable skills and making it fun in ways only you could.
I love camping. Because it reminds you of what it should be.