Quote:
Originally posted by baltassoc
I don't really disagree with you, but let me throw in a couple of extra data points to consider.
Private care, as you put it, is often less expensive than day care, especially if one is talking about more than one kid. With two infants or three kids of mixed ages (day care costs decrease as a kid gets older), the numbers favor a nanny.
I'm not sure how the housing costs really comes into play. Either the lower earning spouse nets more after taxes than the cost of care, or not. The cost of the house could be $500 a month or $5000. Perhaps it's really more of the irony issue. Clearly, there are many people who could afford to pay a nanny AND not have a spouse work, but for the cost of their house. I'm not sure such people would be held in any higher regard, however.
I think bitching about how expensive anything is - from dry cleaning to legal services to child care - is an American way of life. People will get the best care they can afford, which is almost always going to be just slightly more than they want to spend.
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I don't recall ever mentioning housing costs. I was referring more to the cost of living for the
caregiver -- whether the caregiver can afford to live on what he/she is being paid. $25,000 goes a lot farther in San Antonio than it does in NYC. It's probably even a living wage in San Antonio.