Child care and elder care in America as unaffordable luxuries
By 
Recently I’ve been reminded in various ways of the catastrophic state of both child care and elder care in this country, both of which remain almost wholly privatized. This privatization is both a cause and a consequence of an increasingly atomized society in which essentially all such responsibilities devolve onto the nuclear family, rendering the word “community” into something about as meaningful as an HR pamphlet or a political spam email. American society doesn’t take care of children and old people because we choose not to do so.
Something that drives me to distraction is the claim that “we” “can’t afford” this or that aspect of a minimally decent society.
Per capita GDP in 2017 dollars when J.K. Galbraith published The Affluent Society (1958): $18,325
Per capita GDP in 2017 dollars in 2023: $66,755
We can’t afford a decent society because we choose not to afford it.