The better choices that you could make are only obvious if you can see the whole landscape of possibilities available to you. If you don't have that bird's eye

The better choices that you could make are only obvious if you can see the whole landscape of possibilities available to you. If you don't have that bird's eye view, and can only see your local optimum (which is centred on having children early and not minding your health too much), how do you know which way to go to find a better optimum? And even then, if our generous state education gave you the wisdom to see which way to go, would you be able to overcome the barriers between this optimum and the next? That's my redux of the article: there's a local optimum sucking you back in. And at least locally, your behaviour would be sensible behaviour. Your other point, that this (globally) unwise behaviour only amplifies your problems, may well be correct. That will make the well you're stuck in only deeper.