In western countries historically men were typically a bit older than their wife but the wife usually was fairly young still. Definitely way younger than now. I think the average maternal age in the US is close to 30 now. This was a rational arrangement since women had fewer economic opportunities. Now women can do basically everything men can do so they choose to defer pregnancy, which has its own consequences that people are now learning to manage and deal with through IVF, egg freezing, etc.

Interestingly, genetic mutations from the mother are roughly constant regardless of her age. Paternal genetic mutations rise with age. IIRC a 38 year old man's sperm has double the number of mutations a 28 year old man has.

You sure about that? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_European_marriage_pa...

> In Yorkshire in the 14th and 15th centuries, the age range for most brides was between 18 and 22 years and the age of the grooms was similar; rural Yorkshire women tended to marry in their late teens to early twenties while their urban counterparts married in their early to middle twenties. In the 15th century, the average Italian bride was 18 and married a groom 10–12 years her senior. An unmarried Tuscan woman 21 years of age would be seen as past marriageable age, the benchmark for which was 19 years, and easily 97 percent of Florentine women were married by the age of 25 years while 21 years was the average age of a contemporary English bride.

> Ireland's average age of marriage in 1830 was 23.8 for women and 27.47 for men where they had once been about 21 and 25, respectively, and only about 10% of adults remained unmarried;[22] in 1840, they had respectively risen to 24.4 and 27.7;[23][24] in the decades after the Great Famine, the age of marriage had risen to 28–29 for women and 33 for men and as much as a third of Irishmen and a fourth of Irishwomen never married due to chronic economic problems that discouraged early marriage.

Doesn't really contradict what I said, although the age gap between bride and groom was fairly variable (but no country that I'm aware of has a pattern of older bride, younger groom).

On that last point, isn't that because all eggs are produced in-utero and stored for later use (no new eggs can be produced), whereas sperm is manufactured on demand?

That's my assumption, but I don't know the mechanism by which sperm mutations occur.

I mean, maternal genetic mutations aren't strictly age related. However, damage from toxins, other environmental factors, and developmental issues related to hormone levels generally track with age. I wouldn't be surprised to find out paternal fertility issues are truly the same, but that age is a an easy proxy.

Monetarily maybe, but not physically. I'm 42 with a 5-year-old and man do I wish I was doing this in my 30's.

Had those times when your back seized up and you couldn't even lie down properly? :) Been there, done that. If only I had developed better exercise habits when younger. Well, better late than never, though that late sometimes feels like never.

> It seems fairly natural that a couple in most societies (current and historical) would be better able to provide for their children the older they are.

When I was born in 1991 and my sister in 1995, a simple police officer and a nurse in half-time could provide for two children with ease, in one of what was even back then one of the most expensive cities in Germany. Today, me (IT worker) and my s/o (public health administration) can barely afford a flat and two cats.

Fuck that shit, we need rent controls, higher wages and higher taxes on the rich. Then people like me are not forced to wait until 35 that they can start having children.

I was under the impression that programming and IT is very undervalued in Germany, like you're basically earning slightly above average in most cases. At least that's what I gather from two friends who live there.

It is an average employment and I'd not even say it's undervalued. We simply don't have the insane amount of VC money that fuels the equally insane US wages in the tech sector - which has both benefits and problems.

Benefits being that you're barely making rent as a working couple ?

Rent in Germany is really really cheap. Even in "expensive" cities.

Energy, on the other hand, not so.

actually you need more market based rent. remove restrictions that incentivize people not to build housing. tax the rich on land value - which means not have empty lots build a lot of houses encourage a dynamic market that rewards labor and boom you've achieved low rents, high wages