this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
1240 points (99.3% liked)
Work Reform
16512 readers
169 users here now
A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
bullshit
these are some strong opinions right there without much substance
i called my childcare guardians "comrade teacher" and i gladly pay half of my salary for a childcare in the "capitalist dream" now. neither has anything to do with the real reasons why we have childcare nor why it is expensive somewhere or free somewhere else.
childcare enables parents to do more with their life than just have kids and as such is good both for parents and for the society in general. it also enables children to access early childhood education and community that their parents wouldn't be able to provide otherwise so - if done right - is also great for the kids.
but of course, as with everything with life, things can be messed up by the people. parents or teachers can screw up in many different ways or even the whole childcare might be organised for an entirely wrong reason... that doesn't mean childcare is a bad idea in general.
Woah there, friend. Aren't we being a little bit aggro here? I'm happy to hear your perspective.
I never meant to come off that childcare is bad as a concept! That was never the point.
What I am decrying is the requirement of families being coerced to put their children into a very expensive facility, because if everyone else in the house isn't working a 5x40+ fulltime job, they can't afford a reasonable quality of living. THAT is where it's broken.
Childcare as an option is fantastic for all the reasons you mentioned. Childcare as "the market raises your children with underpaid and exhausted, overhelmed wageslaves unless you're insanely privileged" is not cool.
I'm happy you've had a good experience though, and hope we can reach a solution where it's done right for more folks.
well if childcare as an option is fantastic and all you are angry about is the childcare as an unaffordable necessity then we are totally in agreement...
the way you wrote your original comment didn't entirely hit me that way though. it definitely gave me more of an impression that you consider childcare as bad (see the quote) and your solution to people struggling is traditional family values and housewives.
Sorry, no I don't believe I conveyed myself in that way, updoots seem to agree.
I do think we're in alignment here, but also I understand nuance is often lost over Internet posts so let me clarify my position. "Family values and housewives" as you put it being a great example:
Women having the opportunity to leave the home of their own volition and be in a career the same as a man? Awesome. Progress.
Women AND men alike, in a family unit, forced simultaneously into the career-style workforce or multiple garbage jobs because the family goes bust and destitute otherwise? Bullshit.
Programs for kids to safely socialize and learn as a community? Fantastic!
Overwhelmed daycares staffed by burned out underpaid care workers, costing half of everyone's salary, because otherwise the only alternative is literally child abandonment, thanks to everybody needing to leave the home and devote a majority of their time to wage labor? Capitalistic nightmare.
That's basically a systemic form of indentured servitude to pay ransom for one's own children. It isn't right.
Parents should be free to choose parenting their children over creating shareholder value without starving. Parenting is already a full time job, and outsourcing it entirely to someone else's employees every "business day" sounds like a great way to wreck a society's future adults.
Especially in the U.S when maternity leave is laughably short for many, and paternity leave is a fanciful myth from faraway lands, and those early years spent with one's family are CRITICAL for a child's early development.
So when I satirically said "parenting as a service" (mocking 'software as a service' / rent-seeking behavior), I wasn't referring to "Watch our kids and enrich them a little occasionally."
I literally meant "A paid service has to raise our children because we aren't rich enough to spend much time with them besides breakfast and bedtime."
That sounds pretty horrible to me.
WAIT HOLD ON I GOTTA SHOW THIS TO MY WIFE (teaches kinder) she's gonna love you