A thought occurred to me. The costs of having children rise while pay stagnates. This means that your average person will struggle to make ends meet while attempting to raise a child.
If it is not possible to raise a child without worrying about whether or not the bills will be paid, then most people will not have kids.
If I remember correctly, the birth rate is slowly declining. This will be a problem down the line for our capitalist overlords. But they can't have their cake and eat it….
Actually, that analogy doesn't quite work. They've already gotten a cake and eaten it, and now they're going for seconds. Unfortunately, us peasants cant make more slaves, I mean babies, for them if they don't pay us more. The birth rates will continue to decline until the situation changes.