Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hcrvx1.UUCP Path: utzoo!hcrvx1!chrisr From: chrisr@hcrvx1.UUCP (Chris Retterath) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: (Repost after Ont hiatus) Subsidized daycare Message-ID: <1447@hcrvx1.UUCP> Date: Sun, 14-Dec-86 13:58:22 EST Article-I.D.: hcrvx1.1447 Posted: Sun Dec 14 13:58:22 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 16-Dec-86 19:35:08 EST Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto Lines: 32 Re: comments on subsidized daycare by Jim Clarke (utcsri!clarke) I fail to see how government can provide daycare any cheaper then private daycare -- in fact, it will probably cost more, because of the extra costs required to administer it. I fear a trade union, like teacher unions, will then emerge at government daycare centers, which will force costs up even higher as they have done at public schools. Of course, this will all be justified by a requirement for child care degrees, which will help keep down the number of people providing daycare and rationalize the need for higher wages. (This is a classic element of unionization: the restriction of entry to the union to form a closed shop at the expense of people not in the union. Note that this been done with nurses, teachers, physicians, airline pilots, carpenters, plumbers, vets, university professors, et cetera.) There is no doubt that cheap but good daycare would be nice to have. It used to be that mothers stayed at home to provide 'free' daycare for their own children. This service is considered to be inelegible for payment when you take care of your own children, but not if you take care of anothers! (Just try paying your spouse a salary for babysitting/daycare services and deducting the amount as a child care expense.) Given that people may wish to work outside the home, they should pay for their own children's upbringing for that 5 year period before our professional daycare -um- schools take over. Given that some people want to take care of their own children, or may not see the benefit of working outside the home given the amount daycare will then cost them, I see no reason NOT to allow the payment of the prevailing rate for daycare services from one spouse to another, such payments to be fully deductable from income. What this would mean is that many more people who may want to stay at home during their childrens' developing years can affort to do so, with their contributions acknowledged with an income. This alone would free up more daycare slots for other children whose parent(s) are working. Chris Retterath.