As the interest in the free child care system increases, the issue about who will pay for the “free service” is getting controversial as well. Actually, the biggest concern is that implementing the free service can increase taxes. Of course, it is inevitable for government to use a tax, but the problem is limitation of using a tax; the amount of tax that can be allocated to a policy is limited. Generally, government collects more money from citizens to solve the problem. However, increasing taxes contradicts the purpose of the free child care policy that is releasing the economic burden of citizens. It is difficult to overcome the dilemma, but it can be possible if a lot of individuals’ voluntary support accumulate.
Then what is the individuals’ voluntary support? The donating system of Word Vision can be an example of it. As each donator of Word Vision supports one child in the poor countries, each family can support one child of a family which needs the free child care. For example, each daycare institution can ask whether every family which visits there to put their child in day care have the intention of donating a little money for a child of a low income family. Someone might take the suggestion with pleasure, on the other hand, there should be someone who refuses it. However, parents are more likely to feel sorry for the situation of the children who are left alone when their parents go to work than the others. Therefore, each volunteered families can support a child to the degree that they do not feel pressure, or some families share the cost of day care for a child of a low income family. Then the governmental cost for implementing the free child care policy might decrease, and the low income family’s burden of paying increased taxes might be released.
Now that this method just needs people’s warm heart, it may not need a lot of financial support to promote it. As a result, it can produce high efficiency with low cost. Of course, it has a problem how many families will be interested in the donation and donate for the children, but it seems possible to be succeed in collecting a lot of participation in the method as Word Vision saves many children in the poor countries. Even if not many families would volunteer to help the children, a few families’s help can be a great support to some of the low income families who have trouble in caring their children at where the hand of government does not reach. Furthermore, the method might be much more successful than people expect because the world is still warm.
I agree with you Hyeseong An, your discussion “What US government should do?; who will pay for the ‘free’ service?”, which is simply about ‘free’ child healthcare and how we can make it work correctly has been a topic of discussion for many people. I completely agree with your statement “it is inevitable for government to use a tax, but the problem is limitation of using a tax… increasing taxes contradicts the purpose of the free child care policy that is releasing the economic burden of citizens.” The taxation would make it just discounted child healthcare, or healthcare people pay for regardless of if they have children or not. The one thing I don’t agree with is asking other parents at a children’s daycare to donate to lower income families, although some people may do it graciously, others may find it insulting. I feel like you are on the right track, maybe just creating a ‘healthcare for kids’ fund that takes donations at many different places, it will not be just for a couple of kids but for many different kids across the nation. I enjoyed reading your blog Hyeseong, thank you for the wonderful article.
ReplyDeleteThe child care system in this country is a good topic to bring up, and the question of who will inevitably pay for it all is out there, the american taxpayers. The method you described which asks for donations at day cares and other similiar facilities is a good one, additional methods like maybe pamphlets or an outreach of the organization to the public would be a great idea to help kickstart such a process. But it's definitely something that can be thought up of and improved on if great minds were put to it. With this country's current situation and programs, it would be something I support.
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