The childcare system in the U.S. has been struggling for years, but the recent hit small businesses took in 2020 bared a very foundational problem with it. Families struggling with money are caught in cycles of high costs and low wages that trap them in the same economic bracket through thick and thin.
The problem isn’t that people don’t want to send children to daycare, or even that people don’t want to run daycares. There are clearly people who find love and fulfillment in the field but must make the decisions it takes to survive. It comes down to a need for support from a system that feeds corporations while starving small businesses. The facts are there, and they are being discussed, but solutions are vague, with plans for the future hinging on this nebulous “something” that could turn the tide and be good for everyone.
Change is confusing and politics are an automatic turnoff for some people. So in the face of this dying industry, think first about your neighbors. One of the most vital things a country the size of the U.S. is missing is community. Direct action is about mutual assistance in your town as much as it is anything else. If the problems are too big to imagine, help the people you can see. When you form bonds and groups, grow together, and find ways to help more people, the problems will begin to look smaller.
.
