00:00 Speaker A
Mike, before we get into that, I just want to briefly touch on how you arrived at the $140,000 number because you’re looking at various inputs, right? Expensive for home use. So you use national data to calculate average child care, housing costs, and then add up food, health care, taxes, and transportation there. All of these are high numbers, then add in the other necessities and that’s how the total comes to $136,500. Now,
00:33 Speaker A
As you know, there’s been a lot of debate around that number since you came up with that estimate, Mike, but I’d like to know what your thoughts are on the debate that’s arisen from that and what you’ve taken away from all this back and forth.
00:54 Speaker B
Well, Julie, first of all, thank you. By the way, this is a great graphic. I think I’ll steal it for any future version of this. Well, yes, there’s a lot of debate surrounding it. I think this is largely an ungenerous reading, where people are actually trying to assert absolute poverty levels versus relative poverty levels.
01:17 Speaker B
Well, for me, the point is not really to drill down and define a new poverty line. It’s about understanding what the average American family is going through. I built these numbers based on MIT’s living wage components. What’s really surprising is things like child care, which, as people rightly point out, is not something that every family or family has to do. That’s why I’ve focused specifically on the experiences of young American families to try to answer this question
01:45 Speaker B
The question is, why aren’t we seeing more families forming? Given that Millennials are now at their peak fertility levels, why aren’t we seeing more kids being born? Well, the answer is simple. It is very expensive to have a baby in the United States today. Child care is an issue that should be of concern, especially when you consider factors like the New York City elections.
02:14 Speaker B
I think something that both sides of the debate are afraid of, the left is understandably very afraid of, because it distracts from the official poor, the real poor, you know, who suffer from real deprivation and real insecurity. While the right bristled at the idea of opening up more progressive taxation and the idea that there might be institutional needs, such as Mondami’s proposal for government-driven health care centered around child care.
02:44 Speaker B
On the right, I’m scared and everyone else is scared that this is ultimately going to be the solution that’s being proposed, right? For example, new government agencies for child care. Etc., in every aspect, we have encountered huge resistance from institutions or official departments. Indeed, it’s unbelievable that I received over 10,000 messages and an incredible amount of comments in the news media from people basically saying, oh my gosh, someone really knows my life.
03:12 Speaker A
Well, that’s what’s interesting about it, because I think there’s a political impact, there’s an economic impact, but we’ve been talking about, and we’ve been talking about for the past few years, what’s called “vibration transfer.” I was talking to a strategist this week about atmospheric pressure, which means things are getting worse and there’s a gap between what the numbers say and how people feel. depends on who is in office
03:40 Speaker A
They tell people, well, you don’t really feel what you feel. So I guess that does help validate some people’s feelings. It’s like we’re not just making it up.
03:52 Speaker A
Even if we are not poor, even if we are not actively working to provide for our families, we know that this is not an easy environment.
04:03 Speaker B
Yes, I think that’s right. I think it’s really important for people to understand that a significant portion of the American population, particularly the people that we depend on to create future workers, future voters, future taxpayers, well, they say, folks, this is virtually impossibly difficult, and it’s not a result of their weakness and incompetence. The simple reality is that in order to afford renting or buying a home,
04:34 Speaker B
You need a second income. Childcare becomes a very real part of this. Historically, this could be provided by a neighbor or family member. But too often, the work of making these opportunities affordable is far removed from these support networks. So this has become a growing reality for young American families, and it’s untenable.