Doly wrote:Humans evolved to breed and consume as much as possible without any regard for the long term consequences of our actions.
It's hard to explain the rising of marriage age over time if we are so terrible at having regard for the long term consequences of our actions. Clearly, we have sometimes managed it. The problem, as I see it, is that there have been so many fast changes in the last few decades, that we may have gone over our own ability to deal with the consequences of our actions.
I find the rising of marriage age over time very easy to explain. It is mostly a developed world phenomenon, though not exclusively, due to increased educational and career opportunities for women, more easily available higher education for the masses, student debt, wedding costs, the inability of many younger people to rent or buy a home because of high prices, increased cost of living because of devaluation and inflation, cultural changes like the number of people with alternative lifestyles, sexual experimentation, the increased costs of having children, men addicted to porn and video games, younger people wanting to enjoy some time as singles having fun with friends in their youth, etc. The same applies to wealthier people in poorer countries, too.