PS: The point here is NOT that poor people shouldn’t have kids, it’s that no one should be having kids without having the basics of childcare covered, which necessitates widespread systemic, societal, and economic change so that no parent needs to worry about those basics, and kids can grow up in secure, healthy environments. I completely forgot to mention this when I originally posted it, and that’s my bad.
This is the crux. I’m reasonably well adjusted, I like to think I would love my theoretical kid. But it’s hard to overcome the fact that the whole society is getting way harsher and so many people are poorer than their parents were. My life has been a lot more difficult than my parents’ life was, and it seems like if I had kids, their lives would be even more difficult than mine has been.