I'm not sure it was any grand conspiracy to take down the family. I think it was in part just consumerism and the feds destroying the dollar. Advertising exploded in the 60s and people were conned into believing they needed all kinds of things, plus vacations plus eating out and tons of clothing. This was all foreign to us growing up, surviving for a large part of my childhood on just my dad's salary. The 6 of us lived in a 2 bedroom/ 1 bath. We had little clothing, no gadgets, never went out to eat , much less vacations. But that was the norm in our neighborhood and without the crazy marketing 24/7 we thought everyone lived this way and we were content. The shows on TV promoted simple lifestyles not crazy over the top ones.

Then the onslaught of consumerism began. We all were suppose to go on Disney vacations, every child has their own room, enormous wardrobes of name brand overpriced crap and constant eating out. It got out of hand pretty damn quickly. So you gotta decide what's truly important I guess. Maybe you can have a big family but not with modern expectations of what's necessary. My niece has every material thing under the sun and has traveled the world. You know what she doesn't have? A stay at home mom or siblings. That's often the trade off.