I would like to be able to pay my entire childcare bill with pre-tax income. Currently I can pay up to $5000 of it pre-tax but I have 2 kids under 4 so that’s a little more than one months worth. It’s a joke.
My hope for prosperity is that fewer of us have to work, or work as much. I’m a stay at home dad working part time. If housing were cheaper, I could afford not to work at all.
I’m sure it’s better for the economy if I were forced by costs to work full time, but it wouldn’t be better for me to pay someone else to spend time with my children. I love spending time with my children!
Even if childcare were free, the cost would be that someone else would have seen their first steps instead of me and seen them through so many other firsts and discoveries and adventures!
Obviously to each their own, but if we address major affordability issues, I’d expect to not be the only one who then has the luxury to choose time with family. What a luxury!
I hope those choosing career aren’t forced into it to pay their mortgage or subconsciously cajoled by those who think that career is identity or freedom. There’s freedom TO work and freedom FROM work ;)
Identifying valuable policies, such as this one, and arguing for them with the professional-managerial class, such as your audience, has little marginal value. The step-change we need is creating political support to implement the policy.
My priors: many swing voters are deeply skeptical of subsiding “child care”. Recall that the median voter is 50 years old, did not graduate college, and owns their home. A child care subsidy is a tax they will pay for a benefit they did not enjoy back when they needed it. Your (correct!) argument that the tax is win-win will not move them.
The first thing that comes to mind is to stop calling it “child care”. Instead, call it “work support”. The second thing is to look at jurisdictions such as NYC where there is broad support for the idea and concentrated wealth — maybe you can foster some large-scale private experiments. You could also look at making post-school aftercare until 6PM available to everyone. Etc.
This is not my field. Surely there is research full of more insight than I have provided here. They key point is: you give yourself too easy and cheap a task when you name a familiar end goal such as broadly available child care. The politics of policy are the job, not trivial details to leave to implementors.
I would like to be able to pay my entire childcare bill with pre-tax income. Currently I can pay up to $5000 of it pre-tax but I have 2 kids under 4 so that’s a little more than one months worth. It’s a joke.
My hope for prosperity is that fewer of us have to work, or work as much. I’m a stay at home dad working part time. If housing were cheaper, I could afford not to work at all.
I’m sure it’s better for the economy if I were forced by costs to work full time, but it wouldn’t be better for me to pay someone else to spend time with my children. I love spending time with my children!
Even if childcare were free, the cost would be that someone else would have seen their first steps instead of me and seen them through so many other firsts and discoveries and adventures!
Obviously to each their own, but if we address major affordability issues, I’d expect to not be the only one who then has the luxury to choose time with family. What a luxury!
I hope those choosing career aren’t forced into it to pay their mortgage or subconsciously cajoled by those who think that career is identity or freedom. There’s freedom TO work and freedom FROM work ;)
Identifying valuable policies, such as this one, and arguing for them with the professional-managerial class, such as your audience, has little marginal value. The step-change we need is creating political support to implement the policy.
My priors: many swing voters are deeply skeptical of subsiding “child care”. Recall that the median voter is 50 years old, did not graduate college, and owns their home. A child care subsidy is a tax they will pay for a benefit they did not enjoy back when they needed it. Your (correct!) argument that the tax is win-win will not move them.
The first thing that comes to mind is to stop calling it “child care”. Instead, call it “work support”. The second thing is to look at jurisdictions such as NYC where there is broad support for the idea and concentrated wealth — maybe you can foster some large-scale private experiments. You could also look at making post-school aftercare until 6PM available to everyone. Etc.
This is not my field. Surely there is research full of more insight than I have provided here. They key point is: you give yourself too easy and cheap a task when you name a familiar end goal such as broadly available child care. The politics of policy are the job, not trivial details to leave to implementors.