in reply to Nanook

If this was the case, then it was rather short-sighted, since we have now, across the board, a dramatic drop in birthrates in almost every country. A significant reason given is 'time', or lack thereof, to spend on more than one kid, if any at all.

Of course, this low birthrate, in some places even below extinction level, coincides with the drive towards automation and the rise of AI and other technologies to make large swathes of human 'workers' redundant anyway. So perhaps that was the long-term plan; to reduce the 'useless eaters' just in time.