re: “There is a childcare crisis in this country”

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Why not change the tax structure to make it more affordable for wives to stay home and raise their children?

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It's not just that. We have convinced society that women working is a good and noble thing. And while it is not a terrible thing that women are in the workplace, we never once stopped and thought about the ramifications of that societal shift. Economically, we doubled the employee pool, which led to stagnate wages. In addition, we are now talking about paid Family and medical leave, which sounds great and all. It definitely falls in the category of a "moral and right thing to do." However, as an owner of a business, I shudder at the reality of paying someone 16 weeks for unproductive labor.

We need to get back to fundamentals as a country.

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Agreed. We saw during COVID shutdowns that many people who were handed a ton of money for having 5 or 6 kids managed to buy a couple of TVs, a vehicle, some pizzas.....and now they are broke again needing more money.

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These are people who don't work and don't pay a dime in childcare. And if they do pay, it's money from government.

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Agreed. We saw during COVID shutdowns that many people who were handed a ton of money for having 5 or 6 kids managed to buy a couple of TVs, a vehicle, some pizzas.....and now they are broke again needing more money.

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This is why I believe we're already living in a socialist state. The welfare state is a wealth redistribution program. The "State" knows the welfare recipient is not going to keep the money. It is immediately spent on frivolous goods and services.

This justifies the continued existence of big government programs and ensures dependency by the unwashed masses.

Do your best to be self-sufficient. Unfortunately, the government imposes restrictions on your ability to be self-sufficient. Regulations are control.

Your lives have a dollar amount attached to them. Never forget that. There is no benefit for you to outlive your usefulness. All these programs depend upon you dying when your productivity tapers.

Science fiction writers pondered the effects of AI and Automation and assumed the machines would kill/enslave the population. As it turns out, it will be your own governments.

I was a software engineer with 10 years experience in Silicon Valley.

My twin daughters could not go to daycare. Nannies were expensive, and I didn't trust them to take care of my kids as well as I could.

My husband liked working better than me, so I stayed home.

I didn't buy fancy coffee drinks. I didn't buy lots of clothes. We didn't go on vacation. I cooked at home. I literally saved change, and would only go to a drive through (El Pollo Loco was my favorite) when I had enough change to pay for it.

We somehow managed through those early years.

It was worth it!

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These are people who don't work and don't pay a dime in childcare. And if they do pay, it's money from government.

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True. My point on those people is: They are always sounding the alarm on a crisis or two that could be fixed -- if only they would get more childcare assistance, cash assistance, childcare tax credits.

It's often an individual or couple in 20s or 30s who have no trade school or college history, but they are all like: "I could get out there and kill it in the workforce if someone would spot me 93 grand for food, childcare, housing and other essentials."

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if you can afford them, then live within your means, take no vacations, no new cars, no new houses

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Correct.

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“There is a childcare crisis in this country”

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More free shite for minorities! And they'll fall for it.

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So my question is why is it that expensive? I recall when my son was young (16 years ago) it was pricey as well. But why is it expensive?

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More women are working than ever. Economy is bad and inflation high. Wages have not caught up, so the ability to have a stay at home parent is next to impossible for the vast majority of families. So more childcare is needed than ever before. There aren't enough childcare providers for all the people who need childcare. Wait lists are long. It's basic supply and demand.

There's also a huge problem with employee turnover in childcare facilities. They pay their workers barely livable wages. One of my daughter's teachers just left. We absolutely loved her. She went back to serving because she didn't make enough at the daycare. They pay like $16-17/hr and this is in a nice daycare in a nice neighborhood in the burbs.

State laws also mandate a certain kid:teacher ratio. And that varies by age. So even existing daycare centers can't just have more classes/students because they can't find the staff to meet state guidelines to have more students. There is also a lot of regulatory/insurance stuff that creates a barrier to just go out and start a new daycare.

You also have the issue of people who can more than afford childcare simply not being able to find any availability. We have several friends who put their unborn children on waitlists the minute they found out the wife was pregnant. 9 months later, kid is born, still on waitlist. 3 months later, wife needs to go back to work after maternity leave, still on a waitlist. Then these families have to hire in-home nannies that are even more expensive than daycare. Here, that's going to run you about $40k/year. Some have done nanny-sharing with other families. It's utterly insane. I've seen a couple friends' not get into a daycare until their kid was almost a year old.

The people in here who say there is no crisis, people just spend money on other things, are either willfully ignorant or they had kids 15 years ago and are actually ignorant to what is going on now. They didn't have to deal with the problem so they can't fathom it should be an issue for anyone else.

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lsufball19

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This guy gets it. Thanks for chiming in. frickin old people and even some boomers in here trying to compare apples to carburetors and have no clue.