That is the unfortunate state of our society.  Physically, the best time to have a child is the worst time socially to have a child (ages 14 to 18).  And socially, the best time to have a child is the worst time physically to have a child (ages 25+).  Atleast for women.  Men are less susceptible, but still susceptible.

I have told people who are "waiting until their ready" that you're never ready to have a child.  No amount of planning ahead can prepare you for what is to come.  It's never convienient, it's never affordable, it's never predictable.

So, try not to be too hard on us 30 year olds having kids.  It's not our fault.  I blame society.

I also blame the insane divorce rate.  Couples who love each other naturally want to procreate, and those who remarry want to have their chance too.

I don't think 'product' makes people happy. Maybe I shouldn't say happy. Contentment is what I'm looking for here. Consumerism and contentment don't mix. A person content with themself and their life will have less desire to buy a ton of crap they don't really need, and the more content they are, the more this will be true.

Our western capatilist consumerist culture is always telling us that we need more and that we can never have enough. Sadly, if the majority of us didn't believe this, the whole system would crash and burn.

I can only speak from personal experience, but when I had nothing (and I mean nothing) I was content and happy. It was actually the best time of my life. Now I have everything I want and more and I'm bored to death, restless and dissatisfied. I go out and buy things like games I'd like to play, and never end up playing them because when I go to pick them up I just look at them and think of how much of my time this game will be taking up and if it will actually make me happy, and I somehow have this strange feeling that I should be doing something else, like something more important.

That I think, is the effect our culture has had on me. So, while I appreciate a lot of things and the higher quality of life that certain technologies have afforded us (via convenience and health), I don't think this is even close to the kind of world that most people would choose to live in or have their children live in.

(List of games I bought that I haven't played or played properly yet:

• Entire Baldurs Gate series I & II.
• Entire Icewindale series I & II.
• Master of Orion I
• Master of Orion II (strangely I played 3 quite a bit)
• Entire Age of Wonders series I & II.
• Star Wars KotOR II
• Sins of a Solar Empire
• [EDIT - Just remembered a couple]
• Starcraft II
• Kings Bounty
• Battle for Middle Earth I & II
• Sacrifice
• Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal
• Elder Scrolls III
• Oblivion

There's more, but that's all I can remember without going through them physically.)

We may disagree on some things, but I definitely know exactly what you are describing here.  Before Elemental came out, I was on about a 12 month hiatus from computer games, and the internet in general.  I went back to some simple things, like reading and daily exercise and sports.  I was happy as hell during that time.

It's more than just this, too.  It's the "NOW" factor.  Fallout New Vegas hit the shelves, I had to have it right away.  Played it for an hour and found Batman Arkham Asylum on sale.  Played that for a few days and went back to Civ5, which satisfied me until Blood Bowl Legendary Edition was released.

Yes, very sad that.  Oh to have an AI that knew what the hell it was doing with all that FFH cheese.