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this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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I don't know how it works in the US but isn't it normal that child care cost are higher than rent or mortgage? Unless you count as child care older kids (like above 3), you can't expect a single worker to take care of more than 3 babies, and rent should be around 1/3 of income. So typical cost of daycare for 1 kif should be about typical cost of housing for 1 worker, no? For reference here in France, my mortgage is about 1300€/month and daycare (full time, private) for one child is 1400€/month, (of which about 700€ is paid by the state).
There's your problem in thinking. The government in the US gives you NOTHING to help raise a family. Some in a tax refund but if you're broke today you can't plan for money to feed you tomorrow.
Capitalism rules every aspect of your life if you make under 250,000 dollars.
California has required child:staff ratios for childcare. Under 1 year is 3:1, age 1-2 is 4:1, age 3 is 7:1, and ages 4-5 is 8:1.
Our childcare center is non-profit. It’s about $1800/month for infants and $1300/month for 3-4 year olds. They cover all the food and diapers, and they do the laundry (sheets). The teachers are paid poorly. The government pays nothing. Anyway I agree with you, for infants it makes sense for the cost to be about the same as renting a small place.
It doesn't really seem too sustainable to have to be so expensive if you actually want people to have kids, especially when the US is so famously allergic to the very notion of social safety nets. Median household income in my county is just under $50,000/year, so lets call it $50,000 to make things easy. Median rent for a one bedroom apartment is $1,588/month, so housing alone leaves you with $30,944. Average cost of child care for my city is $16,250/year for kids 2 or younger, so now we're down to $14,694 to cover all other expenses for the rest of the year for our average household, ignoring the fact that we ignored taxes on that $50,000 income to begin with. That's $282.58/week to feed a potential family of 3, clothe them, pay utilities, etc. which isn't a whole lot.
Indeed, this is why child care is or should be heavily subsidized.
Yeah, unfortunately, it just isn't a possibility for most people in the US, and even in the areas where programs do exist, they tend to be severely underfunded and means-tested like crazy, so only the poorest of the poor will qualify. I'm not interested in having kids, but for those who do want them, it's just insane the expenses they will have to go through to be able to just keep their jobs and have their kids being watched by someone.
700 paid by state is nice. My kid goes to a non profit day care in the US. Normally they charge $50 / day. I have family that work there and the one benefit they get is costs $10 / day instead. Other people I know pay $100/day at their daycare in bigger cities.