Again, I choose to stay home, but I'm not about to ask for a handout to do so. I also agree that kids need interaction with other kids (I've seen several home schooled kids that have absolutely no social skills whatsoever), but mine do interact well with other kids at church and other things - I just don't see the need to put him in a day care for low income families "just because". Paid daycare is expensive and again, that raises the threshold of where my income would have to be to justify it. Either way, even when my youngest goes to school in a year and a half, I still plan on only working part time during school hours. I like to be able to pick my kids up from school every day. Again, that's a choice that I make so that mine is the face they see.
I agree that the majority of America is dual income families and that phenomenon has started in the past 40 years. (roughly my lifetime) Where has this mentality gotten us (the US)? Crime is up, divorce is up, suicide is up, insurmountable debt is up, etc.
One of my kids goes to a competition cheerleading gym here. It's a luxury that we budget for because it's something that she wants to do. When I take her to practice, I sit there with other parents most of which are dual income families. Most of the time, they come flying in because the practice starts at 5:45 and they are shoveling fast food in their kids faces because they haven't even been home from work - they just picked their kids up from the after-school program and came right to practice. I've already fed my kids a home cooked meal that we sat at a table to eat. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to drive a shiny Lexus like the other parents, but the lack of a car payment takes the sting out of not having a nice shiny new car in the driveway.
If they want to change things in government, lets start with entitlement programs.... I'm the first to say get rid of or reduce the heck out of them. As a married couple with insurance, on average, our out of pocket expenses to have our kids was $4000. My step-daughter who had a child out of wed-lock when she was 18 was scooped up under Medicaid and the entire cost was covered - epidural and all. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it did, because I'd have been on the hook for it because the baby-daddy didn't contribute a thing birth to death of that child, but it's a systemic problem. She wasn't asked if she wanted Medicaid, she was told she had to go on it. I'm absolutely sure she wasn't the only one in this situation....
Anyway, I did mis-speak, Ron - you are right. Her paycheck was NOT in fact less after working more hours, her effective hourly wage went down for those hours. The net effect is still the same, though - if the 31st and 32nd and 33rd hour are paid at half your normal wage, it takes the incentive to work longer away.
Completely off topic, but I also disagree with raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour (or whatever). It should go up with a cost of living allowance, but not just an arbitrary amount. By raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour, then those who were making $10 an hour before will feel like they deserve $12 an hour and on up the pipeline.
I'm almost 40 and I've been dreaming of a ''mid life crisis'' build.