At some point, the older kids are providing child care for the younger ones. But also, its very “infinite economic growth thanks to our ever-expanding frontier” understanding of the family dynamic. As soon as all your neighbors start to copy you, and families start bumping up against one another in their effort to cannibalize the surrounding wilderness, you get conflict. Expand far enough, and the conflicts become things of history - even of legend. The War of the Roses. The French and Indian Wars. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Gaza Genocide.
This is a family style game of The Tragedy of the Commons.
At some point, the older kids are providing child care for the younger ones. But also, its very “infinite economic growth thanks to our ever-expanding frontier” understanding of the family dynamic. As soon as all your neighbors start to copy you, and families start bumping up against one another in their effort to cannibalize the surrounding wilderness, you get conflict. Expand far enough, and the conflicts become things of history - even of legend. The War of the Roses. The French and Indian Wars. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Gaza Genocide.
This is a family style game of The Tragedy of the Commons.
Which is called parentification and usually seen as a form of child abuse.
It is rampant in China