I can see the validity of the "we can take better care of the people we already have" argument. Though I'm uncomfortably reminded of all of the campaigns where birth control and abortion was discouraged only to the wealthier people, and encouraged among the lower-class people, specifically to limit the populations of "the wrong kind of people" (Eugenics), and not having to do with the welfare of the children themselves or society as a whole. One example is the early film
Where Are My Children. https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/where-are-my-children-1916
This is from the perspective of someone who lives in a
shithole country. Trump definition of poor countries whose peoples want to migrate to the US & other rich nation.
It isn't just at the govt-level or even at Orwellian "Haves vs have-nots" that the academics & mass media push but at the direct family level too.
Look at the govt stats I provided above. The households of the "haves" are making ~$5k-10k/year at each increment and yet they have less kids per household.
Imagine you are a single guy (regardless of how they spell, how well they speak Engrish, how they use the bathroom, ethnicity, country/region of origin or faith) or a married couple with a good job that makes your life comfortable.
You delayed getting married to after your mid 20s and stopped at 2 kids birth spaced out by more than 4 years.
Because you delayed getting married you and your spouse were able to go to Uni & Grad School that trained you with useful skills that the domestic & international job markets will pay highly for.
That's why you have a good enough life to have discretionary funds to buy some of the nice cars featured on TG, FG & other automotive shows.
Then you have half a dozen siblings & dozens of cousins, friends, neighbours & etc who may have had kids before getting married and having them as early as their teens. They didn't finish HS or even Uni because of the kids they had.
They then proceed to have more than half a dozen kids with more than 1 woman.
All of them guilt tripping you into helping them for the next 18-25 years. Even into your 80s the children & children's children of people you helped are following their parents' & grandparents' past behaviors of YOLO-ing having kids.
This is not just isolated to the relatives that "made it" but to the eldest kids of these poor parents. They are drafted or guilt tripped at under 18 years old into becoming child labor to pay for their current younger siblings and future younger siblings.
Have doubts about this fantastical storyline? Go to this Reddit sub about the story of these poor kids who were forced to give. Almost all of them come from parents who have a annual income of less than $1.25k, $2.5k, $5k & $10k and yet have 2-4 or more kids. Individuals whose annual income is
less than $5k are exempt from income tax.
www.reddit.com
Typically children dream of being an astronaut, chef, doctor, lawyer, leader or whatnot. No one growing up dreams to pay off the parent's student debts, mortgage or other expense that they did not sign for as they're minors.
> Where Are My Children.
https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/where-are-my-children-1916
The drop of fertility rate in the US & other rich nations coincides and is directly impacted by girls/women being allowed an education that leads to a paying or even higher paying jobs.
My above statement is not an objection to women working but describes the circumstances as to why births per woman dropped.
Many may not realize this but many women or even all women back then had no choice but to marry and have kids because their parents were aging & dying and would cease financially supporting them. They were not allowed to work or work at a high paying job that traditionally held by men back then.
When a woman's not financially dependent on her husband or parents they are much freer to make life choices similar to a man. They tend to opt delaying having any kids into their 30s and 40s hence the up take of fertility clinics.
Ever wondered about women who were bad moms? Odds are they had no financial choice but to produce kids for their husbands so they wouldn't be living on the streets.
Ever wonder why ladies prefer men with nicer cars or other luxury goods attached to the man's wrist, neck and possibly piercings? It is a sign that the man has the (possible) skills to make ends meet and maintain or even uplift the girl's living standards. The smarter girls look for guys who are their skill or financial equals.
As for the producers of films like the one you cited has more to do with their organized religion's experience for the past 2,000+ years. They've experienced every permutation of hardships you cannot imagine. From their history if the fertility drops and life expectancy is ~30 years then the village/town/community will disband as soon as the next famine, drought or pandemic strikes.
It took ~1,800 years for the human population to breach 1 billion. It took >200 years to breach 8 billion. This occurred due to vaccines, modern agriculture, modern food storage methods, supply chains being industrialized & standardized, public health, public sanitation and other things.