Thank you.
You asked what programs government should set up and what tax measures should be in place.
Your instinct to pay down national debt likely involves cutting spending and getting more people to pay tax, yet those things don't always work together. If you want more people earning, you'll have to fund more programs. If you cut taxes, you can fund fewer programs since people have money to meet their own needs.
Urging a woman who's home with a young child or sick parent to get paid work presents a dilemma. Who will tend the baby or grandma? So government is asked to provide daycare for the young, sick, handicapped and elderly so this woman can earn.
It turns out that funding a substitute is costly. The bill for day care in Quebec stunned its planners. The bill for Sweden's day care got so high that the voters defeated the government. With the greying population, elder care will increase that bill.
We now see that women at home were already doing something essential. Funding only programs so women can leave the home is not even feasible for rural parents or handicapped kids. And it is not what all women want.
“When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.” Stress and depression have skyrocketed. Some women want a paid career, while others want to be the caregiver at home. Some want to blend. Some men want the choices. People differ.
Your dilemma becomes twofold: how to pay down the debt and how to recognize caregiving.
I have a suggestion. Instead of only funding mom-substitutes, fund care itself. Fund it based on who needs care. If funding flows with the one who needs care, women will decide care style.
Fund the frail elderly or handicapped directly so that they pick the caregiver; then they retain dignity and thrive in the culture they value. For young children, give a universal birth bonus and give universal maternity benefits, with funding to age 18. Expensive, you say? Yes, but not as expensive as universal day care, which would cost $20 billion per year.
Direct funding would remove child poverty, reduce marital tension, empower women, and nurture free choice. No government can set up a program to match all needs.
Others nations have had the same insight. The United Kingdom and several U.S. states fund the elderly directly. Australia, Russia, and Singapore now have a universal birth bonus. The people of Japan just replaced their government because they wanted more funding for children.
With a greying population, our tax base is eroding. We need fresh blood. Immigration is not going to provide enough earners. We need babies. Setting up daycare did not increase the birth rate in Quebec. Only changing maternity benefits did that.
It turns out that people value not just earning but also spending time with each other. They can't forever earn. Some are too young, some too frail, and those who can't take care of themselves need care. A healthy society recognizes the nurturer as part of the economy.
Those who operate programs will say they deserve all the money, claiming expertise, saying they are an essential service so people can earn. But they are not the only experts. Childcare and eldercare are hardly the same as medical care or schooling. What care programs in schools offer is akin to what restaurants offer — one way to meet a need. You can eat at home, order in or dine out.
Care of a baby involves diaper changes and teaching to sit. It's a skill nearly all households at some point develop. It's not the same as medical care; you don't do brain surgery at home. Teaching a child about photosynthesis is a skill not all citizens have. Formal education and health treatment are universal rights; day care is not. For care of others, we need to fund people, not programs. When you take care of your own child, you regulate the care. When you trust grandma care or neighbour care, you inspect their values--like eating at a friend's and trusting the cooking.
When you trust a stranger to care for your aunt or child, that's different. Then we do not need government standards, inspections as for restaurants. But government does not run restaurants and need not run daycares.
I'm a schoolteacher for K to 12. I see kids and their dreams and hopes. We have to unleash the same creativity on their parents.
Canadians already know what their child or elderly grandma needs. Let them set that up or purchase it. Small and large-scale daycares may thrive alongside neighbourhood day homes, and parents may work from home.
This is a revolution I'm asking for in the definition of work, productivity, and labour force activity. Do not fund programs, but fund people. At a children's hospital, there's a saying I like: to change the outcome, change the income.