In 10 days, the U.S. will fall off a “child care cliff” — that’s the day pandemic-era funding for the industry runs out.
Why it matters: The funding amounted to a $24 billion Band-aid patched over an industry that’s long struggled. When the bandage comes off, the state of child care in the U.S. is likely to be even worse than it was before 2020.
Childcare should be government-subsidized to the point that it is free. It’s an extremely straightforward way to ensure women are able to participate in the workforce at an equitable rate and it is another way to prevent childhood poverty from causing knock-on effects for the rest of a person’s life. It is one of the simplest ways to raise all of society up.
Uh, yeah. Everybody knows that. Women can’t participate in the workforce? Childhood poverty funnels kids into the military and prisons while ensuring gun violence remains a national boogeyman? That’s kind of the point. These regressive outcomes are exactly what the American political right wants.
100%
It’s really demoralizing to see such a low-cost (relatively), but high value policy cast aside so easily
I’m sorry but I don’t want to pay for someone else’s child care. You had the kid, now you pay for it.
Nobody wants to pay for anything, but we do it because having taxes to pay for shit like an army is kinda important. Do I want to pay for the army? No. Is it important? Yes.
If everyone only just does whatever the fuck they want, the US goes from stable and prosperous to a clown car of overweight chucklefucks who disagree with each other on half of everything. Sound familiar?
Okay, but I’m not going to pay for your water, sewer, or electricity either. You bought the house, you figure out how to get drinking water, safely dispose of sewage, and generate your own power.
That’s an incredibly myopic view. All of society benefits from well-educated, healthy, and cared-for citizens. Which is to say nothing of the value created for the society and you individually when others are able to join the workforce, pursue an education, or indulge a creative vision because they are able to contribute to the greater whole around them. I’m going to be charitable and just assume that you have no real knowledge on the economics or policy concerns involved with the subject and aren’t just some chud who wants women shackled to the kitchen appliances and marginalized groups condemned to a cycle of poverty and imprisonment.
This is dangerously short sighted. Should only parents pay taxes for schools? What sort of society do you think that would produce?
I don’t want to pay for some else’s military defense. I don’t want to pay for roads I don’t drive on. I don’t want to pay for services I don’t use. Let’s just go back to before governments existed and make the country a free-for-all!
Would you rather have kids just running around doing whatever the hell they want?
Fuck off with your toxic individualism. We exist as communities and as such all must shoulder some of the burdens of a limited number for the community good. Those who are more able to shoulder that burden should do so.
We need paid maternity and paternity leave. A lot of the cost in childcare is going to pay a bunch of people minimum wage to take care of newborns. It’s not good for the new borns who still won’t get enough attention, it’s not good for the overworked caretakers, and it’s not good for their parents where half their paycheck is going to child care. The only people benefiting are the employers who can get even more labor out of employees who should be home taking care of their baby.
I’m so frustrated paying $950 a month. My kid just got old enough to go into a lower tier, but right after that, they raised the prices across the board so I still pay the same…
If they have like 30 kids at about $950 each, where is all of that money going? All of the ladies that work there make minimum wage.
