[toomuchtodo]

> The fact we’re talking about “universal childcare” while ignoring the equally large if not larger demand women have for staying at home shows our warped priorities. Instead of universal childcare, we should just pay families for children and let them decide whether to use the money for childcare or to enable one parent to stay home.

It would be interesting to see a direct cash transfer longitudinal experiment where you pay families for a parent to stay home and provide care for childrearing vs universal childcare, to see what that does to fertility rates and wellbeing of both care provider parent and the children being raised.

It seems so incredibly silly and shortsighted to be offering up free childcare to enable a parent to work when they could be working at home (if they choose!) raising their kid(s).

[rayiner]

At the very least it seems shortsighted to pay for a different person to take care of the kid when the parent wants to stay home and take care of the kid himself or herself.