But *why* would anybody want to have a wife and child if their living
standards are collapsing? If anything, you'd want to reduce your
liabilities by not getting married or having kids.
Discussion
People didn’t stop having families in the midst of wars, they would still have families when there’s economic turbulence.
I've tended to take a view that people didn't know better back then, and that in 2023, people should know better.
OTOH, people decided that getting pregnant during peak pandemic scare was a good idea for some reason which seemed *insane* to me. It's almost morally wrong to have kids in that situation!