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In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

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Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#91

Post by godelski »

ghaff wrote: post #12
diogenescynic wrote: post #5

Medicare should cover children. Then we'd be covering children and the elderly. I think that seems fair--children deserve healthcare (just like education) as a fundamental right. It shouldn't be dependent on their parents.

Be aware that Medicare is a long way from free. At least if you've had a well-paying job in the past few years, Medicare premiums are pretty similar to exchange costs (or COBRA).

Everyone knows Medicare isn't "free".

Medicare and COBRA are not similar costs. My parents pay half what I would pay if I took COBRA and they have a better plan. Neither of them were struggling before they retired and I'll put it this way, they bought a second home in retirement.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#92

Post by airstrike »

macintux wrote: post #46
roughly wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it turns out that things like free health care, adequate food, good schools, and all that other socialist mumbo jumbo is actually good for productivity and the economy, too.

I wonder how many people would start businesses if we had UBI and free health care as a safety net.

UBI is both a pipe dream and unnecessary.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#94

Post by TylerE »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #43
tock wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then do it today so mothers can continue to work and help the economy.

They would need to be building tanks and airplanes.

Why?

We don’t need tanks and planes. We have plenty.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#95

Post by dmoy »

diogenescynic wrote: post #27
ghaff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be aware that Medicare is a long way from free. At least if you've had a well-paying job in the past few years, Medicare premiums are pretty similar to exchange costs (or COBRA).

Health insurance isn't free either and it's way more expensive than Medicare. We're all also already paying for Medicare...

GP is pointing out that Medicare costs for the individual are about the same as ACA or cobra. It's not cheaper, unless you have the work credits to cut down on part A premiums.

So Medicare as-is for kids wouldn't be significantly cheaper than ACA for kids.

To make it cheaper, you'd need to either substantially increase the subsidy on Medicare, or decrease US medical costs (administration costs, drug costs, doctor salaries, etc)

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#96

Post by danorama »

tbrownaw wrote: post #73
tock wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then do it today so mothers can continue to work and help the economy.

If the tax man can't see it, it doesn't exist. . Scenario A: Max and Alex are a couple and have kids. Max stays home with them, and Alex has a job with a coworker named Avery. Scenario B: Max and Alex are a couple and have kids. They both work, and hire Avery to watch the kids. The same total work gets done by the same group of people in both cases, but the second measures as "better" for "the economy".

But what if Avery has the skills and training to watch 5 kids at once in a group?

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#97

Post by sudosteph »

terminalshort wrote: post #76
sudosteph wrote: post #25

Can't read the whole article, but am curious about how it will impact unlicensed childcare operations. I imagine that the number of parents using these is much higher than many people realize. Will be interesting to see how many parents end up using the state program.

Until very recently in human history 100% of childcare operations were unlicensed, and this was better in every way than a government bureaucracy run system.

I'm not knocking it. My parents didn't use licensed daycare for preschool for me or my sister. Just dropped us off at some old lady's house and paid her cash for watching us. 99% of arrangements like that work out fine. It may be suboptimal, but usually it's at least fine.

I'm actually wondering if the program will make a big dent though. One issue with formal childcare arrangements is that the hours tend to not be flexible. Parents who have to work til 6 some nights, or who have nontraditional work schedules in general may not be better served by the state's option.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#98

Post by Aurornis »

macintux wrote: post #50
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our politicians are unpopular because they do nothing to help us, and when they explicitly help us it's framed as lazy poor people looking for handouts. It makes no sense.

Don't forget the "1% of the recipients are fraudulent, therefore the other 99% must spend 10 hours on paperwork and 6 months waiting for the benefits to start, with a 30% chance of rejection" approach.

> Don't forget the "1% of the recipients are fraudulent

It’s complicated. Having 1% fraudulent recipients despite having very thorough and deep vetting processes should be a clue that fraud is a big problem.

The fallacy is assuming that the fraud rate would stay the same if we removed the checks. It would not. The 1% fraud rate is only what gets through the current checks. The more you remove the checks, the higher the fraud rate.

When systems remove all fraud checks, the amount of fraud is hard to fathom if you’ve never been on the side of a fraud detection effort.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#99

Post by johndevor »

roughly wrote: post #35
SoftTalker wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was done so mothers could work building tanks and airplanes, not out of any concern for the children.

Yeah, it turns out that things like free health care, adequate food, good schools, and all that other socialist mumbo jumbo is actually good for productivity and the economy, too.

And yet every single socialist, European country is behind the US in terms of their economic output.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#100

Post by terminalshort »

mariusor wrote: post #84
terminalshort wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until very recently in human history 100% of childcare operations were unlicensed, and this was better in every way than a government bureaucracy run system.

Even with the terrible state of education in most nations, that is a patently untrue sentence at least in the fact that poor people can have access to education at all.

I didn't say anything about school. This article is about childcare for children below school age. But basic education is also actually quite cheap and easy to provide. Abraham Lincoln was educated in a one room school house. We have made it expensive by turning it into a bureaucratic nightmare with administrators, school boards, lawyers, and PTAs, when all you really need is a few good teachers who are given the authority to set and enforce high standards.
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