They decided not to have kids
A tragedy
Edit: it was 600 a month, not a week
Civilized countries decided that forcing poor/elderly childless people to starve wasn't acceptable, so we have these support systems which make childrearing optional. Furthermore, everyone decided to trade single income families for doubling national productivity.
To stop overthinking it and make things simple, all you need to do is get rid of social security and pensions. This immediately changes the math for everyone considering children. Firmly gripping the third rail of politics is super straightforward!