"Universal" "free" child "care".
There, I think I used enough scare quotes. And, soon after implemented, it will be "universal" as in compulsory.
Can't have parents giving the children unapproved thoughts. Better to have them in a sterile environment where care workers don't really care all that much (given that they have to watch 70ish children a day) so the children will be properly "socialized."
Among the evils we've spawned in the west "childcare", meaning stick a bunch of small children in a room together with supervision from people earning very little for their time (do the math on how much a child care worker earns per child, not just overall) is among the worst. Children need a family. Not "care".
It's amusing (not really) that we have the "participation trophy" culture combined with the "childcare" culture. You're so important, we'll reward you with meaningless titles and prizes, but you're not really important enough to merit mommy's time. (Or, in very rare circumstances, daddy's, but only foolish people think that a man staying home with the children while the mother works is a situation that will work for more than a vanishingly small number of people.)
And, yes, I probably stepped on a few toes with that, but children are far more important than how much our culture values them.
