Why Child Care Is So Expensive
The thing with female workforce participation: isn&#x27;t it just symptom of the society getting poorer. My wife worked her ass off. I was making about 130k &#x2F; year. She was making about 60k &#x2F; year. Then we not only moved from the US to Poland (where live is just so much cheaper). But I also started making about 330k &#x2F; year. All the willingness to work evaporated on her part :-) Instead we have another kid. She stopped talking about work and started talking about having more kids. Of course, that&#x27;s anectodal, but also common sense, isn&#x27;t it?<p>My little theory is that while men still made enough money to support good life in the US (50s, 60s) most women just didn&#x27;t want to work. If you can have a house, nice car, four kids, vacation home, 40 hour week, no credit card debt, no school debt, and all of that on carpenter salary -- why not to enjoy life instead of spending 50-60 hours at the office?<p>The dirty secret is that most women work because they HAVE TO. It&#x27;s not a choice. It&#x27;s sold to the society at large as something glamorous because -- what? They&#x27;re going to tell the truth? Yeah, you need to work your ass off 50-60 hours a week, with credit card debt, student loan debt, two cars loan, etc, etc. just to be able barely make it to have two kids at 35 ? Because before that you need advanced degree or two. Actually both of you do... I mean how is that a better deal?<p>I can see that also from the reaction of my wife friends who stayed in the US working to basically help their husbands as one salary won&#x27;t cut it. It&#x27;s not like they wouldn&#x27;t prefer to stay at home with kids. But, again, it&#x27;s not like they have a choice.