> You said your children need childcare as much as education.
Do you know anything about raising kids? Or teaching? Because childcare is a necessary component of education. Because they're kids, not mature scholars. Raising them to maturity requires a combined effort of parents and teachers.
> If you don't have the resources to provide what you believe your children need, perhaps you shouldn't have had children.
Fun fact! I didn't choose to have children! I chose to raise a child as my own, who is not related to me by blood. I know, I know, I'm such a freeloader. But we live in a world where this child is alive and needs care beyond what his parents can provide in a vacuum. Do we as a society (a) neglect the child and shunt him off into the prison system to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars, (b) murder the child for being a useless burden, or (c) nurture the child with the goal of raising a productive (and profitable?!) member of society? I choose (c), it sounds like you prefer (a). Penny wise, pound foolish.
> If you want both parents to work full time, there's certainly an expectation that the children will need care. Why did you assume the state (read: your fellow taxpayers) would or should subsidize that?
As the sibling commenter notes, I pay my taxes. Like most people, I generally expect that public schools will be available. Like most engineers, my specialization is not early childhood education. The cool thing about living in a society is that it gives us the freedom to specialize, and we take advantage of economies of scale.
Can I puddle my own iron and forge a knife out of it? Yes, I guess, if I found a good ore deposit. It would take about a week, and the knife would be absolute garbage compared to one bought for $1 at value village, because I'm under no dilusion that I could make my own steel. Add another month if I'm not allowed to use a hammer or anvil and need to fashion those out of stone. Fuck, I forgot gloves and tongs... this is going to take a while. Self-reliance is a myth. We live in a society and I pay (a lot of) taxes to be a part of it. And yes, as the sibling commenter notes, I have built plans around this society being here tomorrow.
> You are reaping the benefits of having children without bearing all the responsibilities.
Yes, I'm reaping the benefits of... what now? Sorry, no, this child costs me time, money, energy, and flexibility, and I'm only present in his life because I love him and his biological parent.
> This situation is simply revealing the negative externalities many parents force on their neighbors.
Well over half of the the houses in my neighborhood have children. And 100% of humans had biological parents. Are 100% of us negative externalities? Even when we pay taxes?