Child care costs more than a mortgage payment or rent almost everywhere in the U.S.: ‘There is no escaping it’
Child care costs more than a mortgage payment or rent almost everywhere in the U.S.: ‘There is no escaping it’
19 comments
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Yes there is.
Don't have kids.
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If only they hadn't criminalised abortion, and consistently cut funding to sex education and instead funded shit like "Crisis pregnancy centers".
Get your head out of your ass.
And before anyone even tries - I have no kids and want no kids, but to answer this bullshit with "don't have kids" is unhelpful at the very least, and actively licking boot at worst. These problems are not the fault of the people having kids.
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A pothole is not my fault but I won’t intentionally hit it
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You get YOUR head out of your ass.
Having children when you can't provide for them makes you the problem.
Simple as that.
If you can't care for kids, don't drag them into a miserable impoverished existence then whine at everyone else to bankroll you.
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This person gets it. ☺
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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).
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700 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This is fucked up.
Affordable childcare, and living wages for those providing it, would mark a sea change in our system.
But letting parents believe it actually costs anywhere near that much to provide childcare - even considering overhead - is a crime.
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I think it would be great if childcare was subsidized (more). However, I don't think this article is accurate. My child goes to daycare 5 days a week for 8 hrs a day and it costs almost exactly half of my mortgage payment which includes the home loan, property taxes, and homeowner's insurance. And we get back a few thousand dollars in tax benefits each year ($1200 just from the FSA reducing my taxable income).
19 comments
And yet the staff are paid as close to minimum wage as possible.