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Comment by taurath | Hacker News Reader

> Daycare is expensive because no one provides it

Why isn't the Free Market providing it then?

> I’m so tired of faux-progressive outrage online that always only focuses on how one of roughly three things are to blame for everything

I have roughly 20 straight married friends and 4 have kids (all are making top 5% income) and 10 want them but are waiting until they can better afford housing. Thats the basis of my argument, that cost of living is a common complaint. Cost of living sucks, its worse than its ever been in many areas. In areas with low cost of living, they have the problem that housing is relatively cheap but jobs aren't plentiful. I don't think that's controversial, but please let me know what I'm missing.

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>Why isn't the Free Market providing it then?

Like the above comment said, you don't just want anyone watching your very young kid. So minimum wage 18 year old who maybe changed one diaper won't suffice. But sadly, actual caretakers aren't much more well compensated.

But let's do the math on Meanswell Bob anyway. Someone working $10/hour full time will be paid $1600 raw. if they can take care of 3 kids and have some extra payment for overhead (not even profit), we're talking $600/family to pay out, before they even profit. raise it to $1000 and we get $1000 profit per month. Parents feel like they are paying way too much and the caretaker isn't making minimum wage in profit, while taking care of 3 kids they don't care about.

$1000/month is great as a side gig, but this is a) a full time job that b) can't be automated easily and c) requires a high level of trust (i.e. experience and initial capital). Bob here either needs to take care of even more kids (possibly illegally, since there are regulations for this) or charge the parents even more just to make ends meet.

Most of the child care I’ve seen is single provider, restricted to a few kids. Most parents seem to want pre-pre-school. One of those costs a lot, the other costs less, but requires knowing someone who knows someone.

I also don’t think many people see it as a glamorous thing they want to get involved in, but the opportunity is clearly there. There’s probably a fortune to be made in figuring out how to “disrupt” the current industry.

To the other, I think if they’re top 5% in income, they’re looking for something very specific in some very specific neighborhood, and are completely unwilling to compromise.

I was in the top 10% in my relatively high (but not Seattle or SF) cost of living city, and had to move several miles outside of downtown. It was completely affordable with few sacrifices.

In short, I’m calling BS.

Somehow, I think it's just cultural. I spent many years outside of the US, and I think expectations for space are too inflated in America. There are many happy families in Europe raising two kids in a 500 sqft apartment.

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