> Perhaps the only way to make this inevitable tide of pressure and debate work for us is first to recognise it as a collective issue

Instead of identifying this as a market deficiency, they promote the idea that actually it's a collectivist cause. This isn't true, and it's an attempt to frame pronatalism as a "good versus evil" fight instead of a "cost optimization versus human interests" one. Again, Unherd will blame literally every single possible culprit except the concept of a free market betraying human interests. They deserve what they get, at this point.

You seem unreasonably angry at this article for not immediately denouncing capitalism, and ignoring any possibility that there's a cultural aspect. The free market is not a new concept; why wasn't the birth rate as much of a problem 70 years ago when the market was just as free then? It's because young people today don't want kids as much as the previous generations did.

That said, I don't like having these kinds of articles on HN either.