Care work is more valuable than ever (with Kate Bahn)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Child care in the U.S. has been in crisis mode for a long time. It’s wildly expensive for families to afford, and difficult for providers to make ends meet. But now, in the age of COVID-19, even the future existence of child care in America is in doubt. Jessyn and Nick tackle the value of care work, the impossibility of finding affordable child care, and the importance of feminist economics with economist Kate Bahn. Kate Bahn is the director of labor market policy and economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Her areas of research include gender, race, and ethnicity in the labor market, care work, and monopsonistic labor markets. Previously, she was an economist at the Center for American Progress. Bahn also serves as the executive vice president and secretary for the International Association for Feminist Economics. Twitter: @LipstickEcon Further reading: A feminist economic policy agenda in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the quest for racial justice: https://equitablegrowth.org/a-feminist-economic-policy-agenda-in-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-the-quest-for-racial-justice/ America’s child care problem is an economic problem: https://www.vox.com/2020/7/16/21324192/covid-schools-reopening-daycare-child-care-coronavirus Where is the American Child Care Bailout? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/u-s-child-care-providers-need-a-bailout-fast Women’s work-life economics: https://equitablegrowth.org/womens-work-life-economics/ Child care is still the missing ingredient for a fast economic recovery: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-08/lack-of-childcare-options-missing-ingredient-fast-economic-recovery After coronavirus, nearly half of the day care centers in the U.S. could be gone: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coming-child-care-crisis-coronavirus-covid-19_n_5ea1fab4c5b6bb28aa34b642?guccounter=1 Why child care is so ridiculously expensive: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/why-child-care-so-expensive/602599/ Senator Murray introduces $50 billion child care stabilization fund legislation: https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ContentRecord_id=6CA6719F-5CF4-46F8-B3DC-05630F7C0AF1 Biden announces $75 billion plan to fund universal child care and in-home elder care: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/07/21/biden-to-unveil-775-billion-plan-to-fund-child-care-and-elder-care.html Public education should be a birthright: https://crooked.com/articles/public-education-birthright/ If you support public schools, you should support universal child care: https://civicskunk.works/if-you-support-public-schools-you-should-support-universal-child-care-4944041934b1 Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Caregiving always has been a type of function or phenomenon in our society that is the least
0:08.5	successful exactly to the people who need it the most.
0:11.6	You expect your workers to have children so that there will be people to buy your products,
0:16.1	but nobody has accounted for the fact that somebody has to take care of the kids when the parents are
0:20.5	at work.
0:21.3	The 41 million workers who have kids under 18 are feeling this. I mean,
0:25.4	suddenly all child care disappeared. From the offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics with
0:38.3	Nick Hanauer.
0:40.2	In honest conversation about how to make capitalism work for everyone.
0:48.4	I'm Nick Henauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:51.2	I'm Jessen Farrell and I'm Senior Vice President at Civic Ventures. I'm Jessen Farrell and I'm Senior Vice President at Civic Ventures and a former state legislator.
1:00.0	So Jessen today on Pitch Fork Economics, we're going to talk about child care and the
1:04.9	child care crisis that was facing the country before COVID hit and now the even more dramatic child care crisis facing almost every family in the midst of the
1:17.4	pandemic.
1:18.4	Yeah, Nick, I will just say that I am feeling this so personally probably like so many families the 41 million workers who have kids under 18 are feeling this. I mean this was already a really challenging issue. It was already hard to find child care and suddenly all child care
1:38.2	you know for example I relied on my parents in a lot of ways and I can't see them right because of the
1:45.0	pandemic so even like just the social supports that a lot of us had cobbled
1:49.9	together to be able to deal with this let alone the more formal child care that we had also
1:55.3	used for our children, that is all gone. And it is this moment where a social support that had already not been great is now entirely gone and
2:05.8	like looking ahead to the fall when we're going to start the school year knowing
2:10.5	that our kids aren't going back to school it's just almost overwhelming.
2:14.8	Yeah no it's it's so I had to get that off my test Nick I started'm so pleased my children are no longer I know you got him out.
	...

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