Humans were designed to want to have children. It is the first mitsva. Even according to secular science, “reproductive success” is the only success that matters. Over the few centuries two things have happened: 1) the age of puberty has fallen; 2) the economy evolved such that young people are forced to spend more time as children being educated before they can establish themselves. This is quite unnatural. Among the goyim all sorts of deviant behavior results. Among the Yidden, we mainly have a lot of whining. Unless we want to reintroduce famine and plagues (to result in delayed puberty), and somehow revert to a pre-industrial economy (as if anyone today could survive without antibiotics, indoor plumbing, reliable food supplies, the internet, etc.), we’ll just have to live with it. Baruch ha-Shem that at least at present, mothers rarely die in childbirth, children almost always survive to adulthood, so we have more time to have children in spite of a late start (and given that our schools are overcrowded, we seem to being doing well).
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