Childcare in America
As EPI points out, we spend almost nothing on it:
There are many factors here, but this is in part a consequence of America’s sky-high health care costs. The high price of US health care means that Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the elderly tend to crowd out spending on child and family issues.
Children account for half of Medicare, but receive one-fifth the payments. The 80% goes to adults and the elderly. Given the choice between funding for "old people v young people", old voters win over kids
If children could vote, they would not vote for the GOP.
And while New Zealand has low costs per child, they also have mandated 14 weeks of paid maternity leave and a further 38 weeks of unpaid maternity leave.
US policies towards childcare and two-working-parent families -- more precisely, towards working mothers, is brutal. We just aren't investing anything substantial in what is, according to most research, the most important stage of life.
Our race to the bottom mentality needs to change.
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