"Much of the thread dealt with the issue of protecting children (security), and I think that the aspect of scarcity/value that I was attempting to address was related to family size across class lines."
I don't buy it. People had very few kids in Europe after the 30's: on average one or two. But they got to go everywhere. I was riding a tram through Bucharest, to go to my grandmother's house, when I was six. (It was kind of scary.)
Joanna