It&#x27;s not that people delay having children, it&#x27;s that society punishes having children.<p>My fiancee&#x27;s pregnant coworker was told (we live in the USA, unfortunately) that she would have six weeks of unpaid leave after giving birth, followed by two weeks of short-term disability insurance, and then she could return to work or lose her job.  This is for a salaried, postdoctoral scientist at a biotechnology company.  In a related matter, the same HR employee who explained that policy says that he opposes the very idea of paternity leave -- and he&#x27;s a male homosexual.<p>Likewise, the largest wage gap between men and women isn&#x27;t <i>actually</i> a gap between men and women, it&#x27;s a gap between men and <i>mothers</i>.<p>It takes two incomes to support a household these days, and yet society punishes women for childbearing as if it only took one.  What did they <i>expect</i> would happen under these conditions, that people would stop responding to economic incentives &quot;because babies&quot;?