It is difficult not to be pessimistic about the possibilities for success of efforts in countries around the world to encourage larger families — that is, if you yourself believe many more couples should be opting for more than a child or two in this increasingly busy, expensive, complicated, unsettled, helter-skelter world.

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an Oct. 15 report, countries’ years-long efforts at reversing the decline in birthrates have been largely unsuccessful, and in some places have recorded zero success.

The Journal’s report noted that many couples believe governments should not be trying to infringe on their very private viewpoint on how large their family should be, as well as on how many children they can comfortably afford.

Perhaps an opinion expressed by a woman from Hungary who was quoted in the Oct. 15 Journal article is more widespread than many people interested in the birthrate topic might imagine.

“It’s not our duty as Hungarian women to keep the nation alive,” she said, despite the priority and benefits her country’s leadership is giving to promoting families.

The Journal began its article this way:

“Imagine if having children came with more than $150,000 in cheap loans, a subsidized minivan and a lifetime exemption from income taxes.

“Would people have more kids? The answer, it seems, is no.”

“Birthrates have been falling across the developed world since the 1960s,” the Journal wrote. “But the decline hit Europe harder and faster than demographers expected — a foreshadowing of the sudden drop in the U.S. fertility rate in recent years.”

Hungary and Norway devote more resources to families than almost any other nation. Despite their programs, they have fertility rates of 1.5 and 1.4 children for every woman, respectively.

Those two statistics are significantly below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 — the level necessary to keep the population steady.

Meanwhile, the U.S. fertility rate is 1.6, with demographers suggesting the reluctance to have children is a fundamental cultural shift rather than a purely financial one.

“I used to say to myself, I’m too young. I have to finish my bachelor’s degree. I have to find a partner. Then suddenly I woke up and I was 28 years old, married, with a car and a house and a flexible job and there were no more excuses,” the Journal quoted a Norwegian woman as saying. “Even though there are now no practical barriers, I realized that I don’t want children.”

Could that be what is happening in the United States big-time?

According to the Journal, Norway has been incentivizing births for decades with generous parental leave and subsidized child care, but the government’s goal never has been explicitly to encourage people to have more children, but instead to make it easier for women to balance careers and children.

In the U.S., the Journal pointed out, both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have pledged to rethink this country’s family policies.

But could part of the reason for lower birth rates in America and elsewhere also be tied to some individuals’ failure to take care of themselves from the standpoint of their personal health?

What’s been referred to as the “baby bust” — and the efforts to rectify it worldwide — needs much more frank evaluation.