Great article. You have touched on something elemental about North American culture. The dream of achieving material prosperity and raising your family up one standard of living from where you began is deeply rooted.

In Canada too, housing costs are scaring people off of having children. Now, we have a generation whose living standards are markedly worse than their parents. The mythology of the American dream has come into question.

In Europe, do people still aspire to elevating their living standard through workaholism or creating a start up or does upward mobility not matter?