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Why Child Care Is So Expensive

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Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#391

Post by AYBABTME »

umvi wrote: post #179

Unpopular opinion - but I think farming out the majority of the raising of children to daycares is a bad idea in the long term. Obviously some times you don't have a choice, but I think stay-at-home moms (or dads) are extremely valuable for the development of the child and potentially worth more than any monetary gains to be had from dual-income. Yeah, you might not be able to afford a nice house or car as quickly, b…

I'm not sure that having a child growing up in an isolated environment, interacting with mostly one person, is good or healthy. I have a hunch that exposure to many people, situations and environments is better for the child, as long as the overall exposure is positive. Not only that, but the isolation of the caregiver probably makes the caregiver less fit (depression, imagination-killing-routine) to provide quality education. In that lense, I think there's solid arguments for why "farming out" might be better for everyone, child and parents.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#392

Post by readhn »

according to this https://www.care.com/c/stories/15167/what-is-home-daycare-an...

in MA the cost of family daycare is still $6 per hour. This is below min wage and is dirt cheap!!!

Imagine if we paid daycare $25-50/hr ? then the daycare would be truly unaffordable ... how about $103,000/year daycare cost ($50/hr) ???

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#393

Post by vkou »

aceofspades19 wrote: post #387
ihumanable wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Taxes are high so I won't try to make more money" - No one ever.

There are lots of people who don't try to make more money because of roadblocks put in by the government. Obviously the uber-rich like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates don't care that much about taxes but for someone in the low to middle income brackets it can be challenging to move up as you pay more in taxes and receive less help from the government. If you make enough money that you can live comfortably and you would…

> Obviously the uber-rich like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates don't care that much about taxes but for someone in the low to middle income brackets it can be challenging to move up as you pay more in taxes and receive less help from the government.

The people in the middle income brackets don't want to move up, in the sense that they don't want to work 20% harder, to get a 3% increase in their paycheck. (Which is how most employers 'reward' hard work.)

That's because effort and remuneration aren't linked in a 1:1 fashion, not because the marginal tax bracket for the next dollar they earn is three percent higher than the previous one.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#394

Post by satyrnein »

bdamm wrote: post #172
xamuel wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's as if they read in "Brave New World" about the abolition of the family unit and they took that as an instruction guide.

That happened some time ago. In fact, one of the issues with so many women in the workforce is that in the 50's that same class of women were providing community networking functions, allowing for local problem solving and support that is somewhat extinct now. Frankly I am unsold on the benefit to society of women in the workforce. Did we gain women's freedom at the cost of strong and good families? It's a taboo, now…

The benefit is that the other half of the population also deserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Likewise, we didn't abolish slavery because it would be good for cotton prices.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#395

Post by aianus »

vkou wrote: post #362
HBKXNCUO wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are assuming massive incompetence on the part of child care workers with no prior evidence. The fact that they earn minimum wage is evidence of their collective incompetence. The fact that they would not be emotionally destroyed by never seeing the child again when either they leave their job or the child moves on is evidence of their indifference. >19% of women with a post graduate degree is huge. How many mill…

> The fact that they earn minimum wage is evidence of their collective incompetence. So, because society undervalues their work, they are incompetent losers, with anti-social behavior disorders? Please, pray tell, how much do you think the people who grow the food that you need to live get paid? Do you think as poorly of them?

The real people who grow my food are the engineers at Monsanto and John Deere and chemical fertilizer companies and they make plenty of money.

The farmer ultimately adds very little value compared to the above, sorry to say.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#396

Post by zionic »

AYBABTME wrote: post #391
umvi wrote: post #179

Unpopular opinion - but I think farming out the majority of the raising of children to daycares is a bad idea in the long term. Obviously some times you don't have a choice, but I think stay-at-home moms (or dads) are extremely valuable for the development of the child and potentially worth more than any monetary gains to be had from dual-income. Yeah, you might not be able to afford a nice house or car as quickly, b…

I'm not sure that having a child growing up in an isolated environment, interacting with mostly one person, is good or healthy. I have a hunch that exposure to many people, situations and environments is better for the child, as long as the overall exposure is positive. Not only that, but the isolation of the caregiver probably makes the caregiver less fit (depression, imagination-killing-routine) to provide quality…

Absolutely, it would go a long way towards reducing the population's sense of individualism and better prepare the next crop of corporate drones. We should get started at once!

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#397

Post by usaar333 »

yters wrote: post #156

If child care is so expensive, wouldn't the income loss of one parent staying at home be irrelevant? Plus, the parent could find some simple side gigs that fit into at home childcare, or even do paid childcare themselves. I think the real problem is people don't like taking care of kids, and would rather have a stranger do the job. Understandable since kids are noisy, disobedient, stinky little things, but we were al…

> If child care is so expensive, wouldn't the income loss of one parent staying at home be irrelevant

Well, no. You might still come out ahead even if childcare consumes 60% of the lower earners' after tax income.

Also, the big issue is what to do once the kids don't need such heavy parental attention. Sucks to have lost all your work skills. Also can lead to problematic power dynamics in the relationship.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#398

Post by axaxs »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #310
axaxs wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the outlier, though. Most states tend to hover in the 5% range. A few states have 0 income tax, but typically make up for it with property tax. But nowhere close to the Federal tax rate...

Most states hover in the 5% revenue compared to what the federal government collects in that state ? I strongly disagree. For example, Utah's tax revenue was $9.9 billion in 2018-2019. Federal was $3.6 trillion. But Utah only has 1% of the US population. So if the rest of the states taxed at the rate Utah does, that would be $990 billion, which is about 1/4 of the Federal take. It's way more than 5%. And Utah is not…

Interesting math. Where does it come from if not income? Corporate taxes? Sales/fuel taxes?

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#399

Post by scruple »

silveroriole wrote: post #219
scruple wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In other words, the extra money may not be making it into the general economy much and it may instead just be supporting higher home prices. This was the topic of conversation this weekend between my wife and I and 4 other couples that we are friends with, each of us with young children. We live in SoCal. We have young kids. We basically can afford to live here, despite having high-paying, dual-income households. T…

You have a house and multiple cars but you can’t go to Disneyland as often as you’d like? Such hardship... barely living...

> You have a house

I have a mortgage, insurance, and taxes.

> multiple cars

I'm really tearing up the road in my 2004 Scion (that I got used in 2010) and my 2014 Honda.

I also have exorbitant childcare costs that are leading my wife and I to question the value of my wife or I continuing to work and live in this place.

I'm not rich. I don't live in Ladera Ranch. I don't own a Tesla and a Range Rover. But fuck me for thinking it'd be fun to take my kids to Disneyland or a Zoo.

Re: Why Child Care Is So Expensive

#400

Post by ip26 »

lutorm wrote: post #374
ip26 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes are one reason. You have to earn Y where Y >= X * 125% (vaguely speaking) just to break even. If your first thought is something like, maybe we shouldn't tax X spent on daycare- well, that's a subsidy.

In fact, we don't (at least the first $5k, if you have access to a DCRA through your employer.) Why you need to have access to a DCRA and can't simply deduct child care expenses, I have no idea. It's like with an FSA, it seems someone wants to provide a benefit but is purposefully making it harder to use...

Indeed, although $5k is nowhere near enough to cover full time childcare.
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