Hello, friends!

Last week, we talked about the insane difficulties presented by our ‘benefit’ system designed to help people with disabilities, in particular SSI/SSDI.

This week, we’re going to cover something a little closer to home.  We’re still keeping up with the Progressive themes of the ‘care economy,’ and in this case we’re taking a quick look at the people who need the most care in our society:  Children.

This topic was suggested by Haley Wilcox.

Everyone Needs Child Care, And It Costs.

Think about your own childhood for a second.  You probably don’t remember all of it because you were being born.  Assuming you were born in America, that meant your mother was responsible for the hospital bills associated with that adventure.  According to Forbes, it costs over $18,000 to have a baby. Insurance might help, but remember all the complications we’ve talked about vis-a-vis insurance on this Substack?

Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that your hypothetical baby is perfectly healthy.  They only need regular checkups and vaccinations.  This is not a guarantee in real life, but it simplifies the math.  I know from personal experience that this is not always the case.

When you are ready to go back to work (probably far earlier than you’d like to), you’re going to need some form of daycare.  According to CNBC, the average cost for childcare in the US is about $10,000 per year.  That wild number varies from location to location, and depends on what type of programming you select (or can afford…) for your child.  It also depends on whether or not your municipality provides free or discounted Pre-K.

It’s also somewhat dependent on non-financial family resources, such as having grandparents who are available to take over some of the childcare burdens.  Community-based solutions such as having friends who alternate days of responsibility (Bob watches the kids on Monday and Wednesday, Jane watches them on Thursday, etc) can help with these expenses, but require a great deal of trust.

But when your child is finally old enough to join Kindergarten, things change a little bit.

All this time, you (or your landlord) have probably been paying into property taxes for your area.  These rules may vary from location to location, but in my experience the owner of a given property is paying twice-yearly school taxes.  Unless your municipality covered Pre-K, this is when your tax dollars do the heavy lifting of providing a place to learn, providing a staff to teach, and providing administration to make sure everything runs well.  For the 13-or-so years your student is in school, your taxes are paying for their basic daily program.

Of course, if your child’s school day ends at 3:00 PM and your day job doesn’t stop until 5:00 PM, you’ve still got to hire a babysitter for the interim, or retain some form of program.  Your child still needs supervision, at least until they’re in their teens.  Costs vary, but chances are they will remain high, especially if your child has special needs, or if they are working to develop a specific skillset such as music, art, or sports.

And let’s not even talk about the costs of a traditional college education.

How Can We Improve On Exorbitant Childcare Costs?

For starters, Senator Elizabeth Warren ran for President in 2020 on one possible solution:  An “Ultra-Millionaire Tax.”  This would only affect people with a family networth of $50,000,000, and it would be a yearly two-percent tax on all of their wealth beyond the first $50 million.  There’d be a second threshold for those who have over $1 billion.

This money could easily fund universal Pre-K for all students, drastically cutting down the $10,000/year expense mentioned earlier.

Because even mostly-healthy children get sick (schools are petri dishes, I’ve worked in them long enough to confirm), child health care needs to be covered.  Good news!  The Ultra-Millionaires tax would cover Medicare For All.

There are surely other solutions, too, and they can take place on the local level.

For example, New York City provides for universal Pre-K for children when they turn four.  It would appear that much of this money likely comes from New York State’s allocation of Pre-K funding.  While this money does come from New York State residents via taxes, the returns to low-income residents are invaluable.

So here we have state as well as Federal solutions to our problem.

Let’s get out there and fight for such changes!

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.