“Helloooooo!!! “Supporting an aging population” isn’t a reason people should be having babies. Human society isn’t supposed to be a pyramid scheme. The aged population should have worked hard and made large contributions to their society’s physical and intellectual capital, sufficient to support themselves in their old age, and preferably with surplus to enhance the lives of the younger generations as well.”
That is a modern/western perspective, but families were stronger when the younger did help care for the older.
FAMILIES, not the government. And normally this was done by younger family members who were currently enjoying economic, concrete, and intellectual capital that had been amassed by the now-elderly family members. The house was owned free and clear (long since paid for, if not actually built by hand) by the now-elderly, the many acres of farmland and pasture had already been cleared and made productive by the now-elderly, the wealth of knowledge and experience re how to maximize production had been passed on by the now-elderly to the younger generation, giving the younger generation sufficient resources to spend time and money/goods caring for the elderly. The elderly had pre-paid for their own old-age care.