Child care is in the news as debate continues in Congress between the Democratic majority and two Senators. It's a big deal.
That parents are left on their own to pay for costly child care is yet another American horror story. Child care centers are finding it difficult to hire experienced workers; child care workers can't make ends meet on the low pay; vaccine fears persist; and the high costs are further stratifying American families into the childcare-rich, the childcare-poor, and the childcare-middle-class-struggling-to-hold-on.
But as I was listening to a recent NPR interview with a childcare advocate, I was struck by some of the words being used. And then I Googled and found that the same words are commonly used in headlines, newspaper stories, and among policy makers: “business,” “market,” “industry,” “business model,” and, yes, even “profits.”
Janet Yellen (and many others) called it a classic “market failure.”
A newspaper headline: “The child care industry struggles to find workers.”
“A math problem with the business model,” and “The business model of child care really fell apart.”
“On average, the industry has a healthy net profit margin and somewhat consistent sales growth,” said Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman.
They are all wrong. It's really simple.
It’s not market failure (which assumes that the first choice for all needs is private markets), it’s market inappropriate. It’s like using a screwdriver to cook dinner. It’s simply the wrong tool.
It's not an industry; it's an essential public good.
Day care centers aren't businesses—they're schools.
At least they should be and that's what the current debate is really all about. As Maxine Eichner says in her important book, The Free Market Family, “The American Dream has come to be interpreted as simply guaranteeing the right to compete for wealth in an ever more brutal market.” That’s because we’re using the wrong tool to meet public needs.
But, while words matter, ideas also do, so it's important to not let the words get in the way. Because Janet Yellen basically got it right when she continued,
"The free market works well in many different sectors, but child care is not one of them. It does not work for the caregivers. It does not work for the parents. It does not work for the kids. And because it does not work for them, it does not work for the country."
And she correctly went on to make clear that child care shouldn’t be treated as a commodity paid only by parents—since we all benefit when all children are cared for and educated.
"Child care is a textbook example of a broken market (there she goes again!) and one reason is that when you pay for it, the price does not account for all the positive things it confers on our society."
Now for the music section.
Here are two songs I love by songwriters writing to their own children.
I first heard this song, “May You Be Well,” at a show in Woodstock, New York, in Levon Helm's barn (a near religious experience) by Zach Williams of the Lone Bellow—singing a song he wrote to his daughter. I love it.
I first heard this song, “Beautiful Girl,” by Lisa Bastoni the first time I went to the Folk Alliance International annual conference/festival in Kansas City, Missouri. I went to see another artist, Rose Cousins, in a song circle Lisa was in, and was blown away by her song. I've been a fan ever since.
See you next time,
Donald