CAR, I’ve never “dictated” how anyone should live their life. Everyone has their own path and far be it from me to suggest anyone stray from their chosen path. I believe in cause and effect (karma?) and that everyone makes their own bed, including myself.
I don’t know where you have read anywhere on this blog that I have “stubbornly insisted” that “professionals” should move to South County. Actually, the opposite is true. Since we already have more than enough “professionals” living here (and everyone else for that matter) and more than enough real estate “suitable” for “professionals” to live in, I feel there are about 200K too many people down here and would never suggest people move here. I would have preferred that no residential construction had occurred here after about 1992 but, alas, the damage is done.
I beg to differ with you in that there is little to no difference between longtime career women making $40 – $80K vs “professional” women. We all have the same hopes for our children and most of us want the same or similar things for ourselves.
I do agree that most longtime low-income working women (ex: housekeepers, hotel maids, etc) mostly do not have the same aspirations as their higher-earning counterparts. But I don’t see myself (as a semi-professional) as any less smarter, more poorly dressed, worse looking, less lucky, to have poorer taste, less resourceful, a worse communicator, etc than a woman who makes twice what I do or even a woman who makes more than $150K per year. In many ways, I am more fortunate because I am now a bit freer in regards to my time.
CAR, the only breakdown you posted here was the YMCA daycare chart (mostly for licensed daycare homes). The chart by itself doesn’t account for the worker-parent taking home only .30 on the dollar as you are asserting unless they make less than $55K gross annually and have three kids in daycare simultaneously … all under school age.
And even then, as scaredy pointed out … the kids will outgrow the situation quickly. One goes to school half day first, then full day. Then the next one goes to school half day, and so on. The ones in school are only using afterschool care (about 1/3 to 1/2 the price of FT daycare). Meanwhile the worker parent is in line for promotions and raises while their kids are aging out of FT daycare. Their raises compound on themselves when it is time for another raise.
All of this can’t happen while the worker-parent’s (expensive) college degree is gathering dust in a drawer at home for years and no employers are even aware of what they can do.
