You manage when you have them. I personally refuse to let children be a class privilege.

Usually poorer people can afford kids because they are raised within a community of extended family/friends. Of course that configuration doesnt really exist in the anglosphere at all really.

Could be an antidote to purposeless nihilism; that the world is worth fighting for to preserve their future, for ones folks are willing to die for.

My sister and her husband together make enough money in a month to pay my rent for half a year and they barely have anything to spend due to having to raise & provide for four kids on top of themselves.

Like they aren't financially unstable exactly but it wouldn't take much to push them into that situation.

Like others said, when you have them, you figure out a way to manage.

Tangentially related: I was at my sister's recently, visiting for Christmas. One kid under 10, surrounded by mountains of toys, but instead of playing with those she chooses to make up her own game using an old umbrella. I loved that.

I don't think they do. I got a job at 25, and one year and half later, I'm still giving out 25-50% of my earnings every month to my parents because they've lived their whole lives in debt since marriage.

I come from a global south country though, and some people still feel obligated to have children because of longstanding beliefs.

Most of them are rich or got accidentally pregnant and now can’t get an abortion