Most of the middle-class tax benefits that President Obama proposed last week in his State of Union address have something in common. By increasing public support for child care, elder care, and saving for retirement (elder care in advance), they would reduce the burden of family care.
Increases in this burden over time may be intensifying the economic anxiety caused by persistently high unemployment and declining family income. Yet we don’t systematically measure either the value of time or the level of cash expenditures devoted to dependents, treating these as just another form of personal consumption.
Individuals can choose to spend their money raising a child or feeding a cat. They can choose to care for a sick spouse or move out and file for divorce. They can look after their aging mother — or not. Rational economic actors maximize their own happiness.
Sometimes the choices they make don’t affect the rest of us. But our economic system relies on a steady supply of family care, much as it relies on natural resources and ecological services like a stable climate.
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