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Comment by xp84 | Hacker News Reader

I'm just gonna throw this out here: Well-off kids who barely know their workaholic parents have different but equally bad issues for society, than the poor kids do.

Those poor kids have learning deficits. The "well-off" kids often have morality deficits.

A mom or dad raising them properly might help them more than being Student #642 in a government childcare facility.

This isn't an argument against childcare. My children attended preschool for 3 years before Kindergarten. But I'd rather that people got equal support to have a stay-at-home parent so that people can choose.

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Do you have any evidence for that?

From what I’ve seen, the research leans the other way. For example:

Children from more advantaged families were actually more likely to view unfair distribution as unfair, while poorer children were more likely to accept it. [0]

Mother’s work hours show no link to childhood behavioral problems, it’s schedule flexibility that matters. [1]

For working-class families, more father work hours correlated with fewer behavioral problems.[2]

The idea that “well-off kids” end up with morality deficits because their parents work a lot doesn’t seem to hold up.

[0] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.13230

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9119633/

[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7021583/

Like all things: the extremes are never good, and it's all about getting a healthy balance.

- Kids need lots of time with their parents

- Kids need lots of time around other kids

You can do that by sending them to daycare, and ALSO spending lots of time with them when they're home.

You can also do that by taking time off work, and then taking your kid(s) to places with other kids.

Both work; and it depends on your context which works for you.

You aren't wrong but calling it being "Student #642 in a government childcare facility" the wrong way of looking at it. Children grow up best when they are allowed to play with other children. Modern society robs kids of that and helicopter parents are bad for society.

I agree with you vigorously on both those points. I am skeptical however that NM will be able to create a lot of healthy, play-based environments for so many kids.

The market already has incentives to create them -- a ton of good places have waiting lists nationwide, showing unmet demand even at the current price. This suggests the price will need to go higher to attract enough people to do this job. It seems their "$12,000 value" estimate is based on an optimistic belief that they will be buying childcare for their citizens at current prices. When they realize there aren't that many slots available at current rates of pay, will they be okay significantly increasing the costs of the program?

So, my expectations for these facilities are very low and that's a big part of my concern.

I don't know where you live but where I live, the cost of daycare is extremely high and there is a waitlist on most places.

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