The average number of children per Nigerian woman was something like 5 in 2019. No shit they’re always going to be poor. I would even be poor breeding at that rate.
As an anecdote, I personally know a low-earning home security guard who has 2 wives and about 10 kids. His kids are signed up for school but don't go most of the time, rather playing around and the parents just don't care. Sometimes, I wish there's something I could do about that, but I can't. We have no equivalent of CPS here to help such kids.
I dread to think of how those kids will turn out to be, because with minimal or no education at the foundational stage, they're bound to just continue the poverty cycle. Sad.
This comment seems to state that poverty is a result of high birth rates, rather than the other way around. There are very good reasons for families in a society without a strong social safety net to have many children.
In some traditional areas, it probably depends on the gender of your children too.
Additionally, there are 'soft' benefits, like older children providing child care or adult children taking care of their parents or in-laws.
Your son could be strong and able to pole your field?
Your daughter could be beautiful and marry into wealth or royalty?
Your child could invent something wonderful that makes life easier or more enriching?
Or your kid could be a dud unable to grasp concepts of knowledge on hacker news…
People have been seen as monetary items for centuries.
If we want folks to not be used in such ways, we actually have to legislate it. Make sure children have rights and freedoms and that they know about it. Have inheritance laws that make sure each child gets some money from a well-to-do parent, even if they marry someone poor. Make sure farmers worldwide are well-equipped. Educate folks, treat them as equals (which doesn't happen now).