The Biden administration recently announced a set of executive orders intended to “improve care for hard-working families while supporting care workers and family caregivers.” Some of these efforts have merit, including a pilot program aimed at supporting family members who care for relatives with dementia at home.
However, the rationale for these executive orders is striking. The administration says:
[M]any Americans — particularly women — stay out of the workforce to care for their families, making it hard for businesses to attract and retain a skilled workforce and for the economy to grow. A BCG brief forecasts losses of $290 billion each year in gross domestic product in 2030 and beyond if the U.S. fails to address the lack of affordable child care.
The Biden administration, apparently, believes it is bad for women to “stay out of the workforce to care for their families” because it is bad for GDP growth. In reaching this conclusion, the administration cites a report by the giant consulting firm BCG, which laments that CEOs are “grappling with labor shortages and broader talent concerns.”
That BCG report notes the value of “unpaid caregiving” in the United States is equivalent to $2.5 to $3.5 trillion. It would be better, BCG alleges, if the work of parents caring for their kids, and family members caring for the elderly, mostly took place in the formal economy.
BCG writes that government should create, among other things, a government-run childcare system that begins at birth. It recommends that “policymakers
