Here in the U.S., if you have children, or even if you don't, you probably know that daycare is really expensive.

How on earth are y'all affording daycare? I had somebody tell me $550 a week for a kid. Are you insane?

The daycare is so high right now that me and my husband had to make the decision to take my son

out of daycare for the summer.

If you add in my third, it's going to come to about $6,800 a month for daycare that's only

from 9 to 2 a day.

I need the freaking raise and a big one to be able to afford this.

How would you describe the state of early child care in the US right now? Well, one of the people

who I spoke to described childcare as a broken business model because childcare is extremely

expensive for parents to pay.

At the same time, childcare does not make a lot of money.

And the reason for that is because it is so labour intensive and they have to pay staff.

You know, you can't get an algorithm to put a toddler down for a nap or change a diaper remotely, you need people

to be in person.

My name is Harriet Torrey, and I cover the U.S. economy.

So why are you writing about childcare?

I think it's an overlooked aspect of the U.S. economy because so many people struggle with childcare. This is not

something new that the economy is suddenly facing. And this is something that really underpins the

US economy in so many ways. People need reliable childcare in order to participate in the labour force.

For decades, there have been attempts to change the way child care works in the U.S.

Activists have called for reforms, and there have been bills introduced in Congress.

But it's still really hard to find affordable child care.

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