It looks as though you haven't actualy been reading the rest of the thread. I get supply and demand, but there is a point past which providers can't profitably drive prices lower. For infant care, we're often hovering at or even slightly below that point, especially for in-home providers. There's a home day care nearby that we didn't go with that charges $185/week for infants, which at 3 infants a week for 40 hours per comes to an average of less than $14/hour GROSS for the provider, out of which they have to pay insurance, facility costs, upkeep, supplies, administrative expenses, etc.
Child care is not a place where increased supply can reasonably keep driving prices down. Providers are squeezed at least as much as parents.
Yeah, there's not a whole lot of opportunity for economies of scale in early childhood care. You want your infant being cared for by someone who is qualified to do so and you only want that person looking after a few other kids at the same time. Liability is a huge issue.
But most people would be shocked by how un-regulated daycare providers are. This isn't a case of government mandates driving prices up.
Indeed.
A lot of my clients have childcare deductions on their taxes. Childcare for older children is actually pretty affordable, while care for babies is not, largely due to the worker:child ratios involved. Therefore, more generous maternity leave with perhaps a cash payment for parents of young children a la Canada's Universal Childcare Benefit would be an excellent solution.
Yup. And to the extent that childcare for older children is pretty affordable, it could probably be even more so, since centers have to charge more for those older children than they otherwise would to cover the costs of the younger children, on whom they would probably come close to just straight up losing money.
