When I supported Trump’s child tax credit, Dem readers unloaded on me like I was saying something downright evil. I hope they stay true to their principles and criticize Harris for this idea. I’m true to mine, so I’m in favor.
I fail to see the connection with childcare costs because the main driver of costs – as people who actually used daycare know – is the paucity of childcare facilities. Even the most exorbitantly priced daycares have a waiting list from here into the eternity. I’m still supportive of the child tax credit but this is a problem it won’t solve.
What I do despise is the dig at Vance’s regional origins by the use of “memaw and papaw.” It’s childish and off-putting. In theory, the idea of grandparents helping out is fine but if people are using daycare instead it’s because this option is not available. There’s literally not a single person in existence who isn’t using it because nobody suggested this possibility.
In short, everybody in the political space is being an infantile dick on this subject.
Expanding the child tax credit is still a great idea, no matter who proposes it. It’s a million times better than direct payments to parents.
Clarissa's Blog 
It is childish, because the media loves to make digs at Vance for coming from a working class hillbilly family. Grandparents raising kids is seen as trashy and weird to a lot of Americans, even though it’s common among some African American and Hispanic populations. It’s the idea that grandparents should be retired playing golf in Arizona and sometimes visiting grandkids with loads of presents, grandparents raising grandkids or even babysitting them is seen as weird and trashy and/or ethnic
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It’s true, I only ever see working class grandparents with their grandkids. The more college degrees a person has, the likelier they are to act shocked at the idea they might want to spend time with adult children or young grandchildren. I don’t get it but it’s true.
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I’ve seen this myself, where I live and in many of the schools where I work, kids often go away to stay with grandparents during the summer and school holidays. Oftentimes the parents stay here to work and have the kids stay with grandparents that time, in many instances the kids go to a foreign country to stay with grandparents. I’ve encountered a lot of kids who spend the summer in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic or some other country with grandparents, the kids love it. In a lot of circles, that is seen as a tacky holiday since it involves old relatives
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I am the childcare auntie in my family. I can’t remember the last time I *didn’t* have a “spare” kid or two during the summer. And because the spares bear a distinct family resemblance, people tend to just assume they are mine, but like, maybe from a previous relationship or something? This has led to some very funny conversations.
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Well, by all means let them continue to show the majority of the US population what out-of-touch snobs they are.
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Why do you think the child care tax credit better than direct payments to parents?
I have no opinion, so asking in an effort to understand
-YZ
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To help out parents who work instead of motivating an underclass to live off welfare. Families that make their own living are good for children. Families that don’t tend to have serious issues.
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“child care tax credit better than direct payments to parents”
I remember when I wouldn’t understand that either…. but after years of living in Central/Eastern Europe the answer immediately flashes like bright neon in my mind.
Pay the parents… and they’re liable to spend it on foolish crap rather than childcare.
I remember a group here (Poland) collecting used clothes for the underclass. But they specifically warned to not donate anything toooooo nice since the intended recipients couldn’t be trusted with anything toooo nice. They would sell it and drink the money they got from it away…
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This was tried a lot in Eastern Europe, and always with bad results. And that’s in countries with next to no migrants. In a country with around 35 million illegal migrants that we have now, it would be such a bad idea that even Harris isn’t proposing it. Just yet.
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“tried a lot in Eastern Europe, and always with bad results”
It’s a learning process… a few years ago I had a student involved in one of the more effective charity programs (called ‘the noble package’) which involves a _lot_ of vetting for people that want to help themselves (vs those who just want a handout).
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Out of curiosity… have you any details about how this program works, and what it does?
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“have you any details about how this program works”
As it turns out, to my surprise.. their page is available in English as well.
https://www.szlachetnapaczka.pl/en/
What’s not mentioned on the page is the vetting process… new volunteers first accompany more experienced ones. It’s not just about giving out handouts around Christmas (but also about connecting people to more long term help when possible).
And the help is targeted toward specific needs and again more for those who are willing to do what they can to help themselves rather than sitting at home demanding stuff (no shortage of that type here, sadly)
My student mentioned one case of a woman who insisted she needed a new washing machine… she qualified for other types of help but she wasn’t interested in any of it, she was obsessed with a washing machine… but she had a washing machine that was working… and at some point they suspected she wanted a new one in order to resell it and she didn’t qualify.
While the church has lost a lot of respect and followers in recent years the Catholic ethos toward helping others is still pretty strong in the private sector.
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Thanks!
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A little vague on the website, but I’m intrigued.
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Another private sector humanitarian/charity organization originally for those having (or would likely have) problems adjusting to life after communism…
https://barka.org.pl/about-barka-foundation/
https://barka.org.pl/strona-po-ukrainsku/
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Clothing… I actually like the thrift stores for that. They sell stuff, they collect the money, they use it for charitable causes. But most of them will tell you, if you ask, that selling cheap clothing is *part* of their mission– there are places that will give away clothes to the really destitute, but… my family, like many others in our income bracket, depends on being able to buy reasonable-quality children’s clothing secondhand, but we wouldn’t really be willing to go a-begging for it. The shops do the work of sorting out the really fancy new-with-tags stuff that has real resale value in venues like ebay, and they put that on a separate rack with higher prices for the resaler vultures 😉
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