Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
I'm not sure I buy the argument that it's better for the economy to have a larger working population. By that reasoning, shouldn't the government subsidize home cleaning services so more Albertans can hire people to clean their houses instead of doing it themselves?
Polls show most mothers would prefer to stay home with young children if they could afford to. So it may be more effective to combat declining birth rates with improved parental leave benefits, than with subsidized childcare.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/186050/...side-home.aspx |
If house cleaning prevented one parent from working then yes that would be reasonable.
The basic argument is as follows: Assuming a job is available and the cost of child care is the reason that the person is staying home then the benefit of say a $6000 per year subsidy is worth it if that person and the fraction of the person who cares for the pays more than $6000 in taxes.
However the problem with this argument is that all these people who currently work and pay for childcare don’t provide this benefit. There is no benefit from subsidizing someone who already chooses to work. So I’m general unless this program is specifically targeted and means tested it becomes an expensive way to get the desired benefit of more labour participation.