Every academic asshole I have met who had an opinion on birth rates in college assumes one thing about birth rates. Low is better. Fewer humans are better. But guess what. That is the dumbest idea ever. I don't like billionaires, but they are one hundred percent correct on population. if we get complicit, lazy, and disinterested and keep birthrates below 2.1 children per couple. We will become extinct given we don't have radical life extension.
The Americans(my country) are having low birth rates, the Chinese(my people) are having low birth rates, the Japanese are having low birth rates, and the Europeans are having low birth rates. Some countries in the global south are starting to do the same thing.
We are now at 2.5 children, and that may be too high since some academics miscalculated Nigerian birthrates by .6 children per couple. If you were a leader, and you played your cards right you could conquer the world just by ignoring these academics and sending your people abroad, but who are still loyal to your nation-state.
And I know the US is trying, and failing to get birthrates higher, and doing immigration, and China wants three kids per couple. But they will fail. Humans are how you generate the content that gets fed to an AI, without us there is no new & unique content.
And yes right now is a good time not to have children, but generally, you want human beings to create, and not just replicate based on the past.