Which was killed, inevitably by cheap and effective contraception. It is not ever coming back.

Cheap and effective contraception, pharmaceuticals, doctors and careers are all enabled by the economic and technological apparatus of the modern economy. They don’t exist in a vacuum. Most of the carers in Australian homes for the aged and indeed a growing percentage of the hospital staff, consist of immigrants from high birth rate countries. But eventually the day comes when demography makes it impossible to sustain a demand, provide the manpower to care for the elderly and pay the taxes for social security. And in that ruthless world it is not clear that a childless couple will be at any particular survival advantage.

Then who will produce the pharmaceuticals or even administer them? Civilization is not a given, something we have, proof against all vicissitudes. Civilization is in a constant struggle for survival against entropy. If we don’t fix what’s broke, bread lines can come back. Wars can come back. And big families can come back. I am almost tempted to say “will”. The how may differ. Our test as humans is whether to choose to amend ourselves by choice or have our behavior changed by necessity.