Well yeah, once you go down in standards of living low enough, the math flips over in favor of having children again. Because at that point, the mortality rate

Well yeah, once you go down in standards of living low enough, the math flips over in favor of having children again. Because at that point, the mortality rate of children is high enough, you need extras just in case. And then someone’s gotta work your fields just to survive, after all. So the more the better just from the financial and survival standpoint alone. To greatly simplify, it basically makes it so that it makes sense to have children on the far ends of wealth and poverty, and much less sense to do so in the middle.