I think you guys are all way off base. We talked about this in my Soc. class last semester, and read a book by two women who studied this extensively; one woman even lived in the "ghetto" with the women she was studying.
What did she find? They didn't do it for the money, as some of you have alluded to. Or just for the sex. They ( the poor women) basically explained it thus:
- The poor don't really have anything
- They know that they probably never will have anything; middleclass dreams seem impossible for them
- They generally have less chances for higher education and thus the ability to advance themselves is almost non-existent
- Poor women don't trust other poor women, they see them as "man" stealers, and most poor women confess to have no close friends or family ties.
Because of these factors, poor women decide to have children because they provide them with a sense of love and companionship, believing that their baby will always love them, that they don't otherwise have. The father(s) is(are) almost never there, for various reasons, and as mentioned before, they generally say that they don't have any peer-friendships.
I realize that you guys were likely just joking or making light of the situation, but one should at least make an effort to understand the way in which the economic "other half" lives. As more affluent individuals, we have options available to us that the poor could only dream of. In the very poor areas of America, where the study I referred to was conducted, the HS graduation was around 50%. And msot of them don't even go on to college. Therefore, they have less economic incentive to not have children while they are young.
Well I just realized that I am rambling, but the point of my post is that there is a very real, and very understandable, reason why the very poor have kids. We don't have to agree with it, but we should at least make an effort to understand it.
If anyone is actually interested in reading about this, check out the book "Promises I Can Keep" by Edin and Kefalis(sp?). Actually, if someone is really interested, I can send them my copy.