Illustrating the Wisdom of Universal Benefits

Process

	Status	Items
Output	None
Questions	None
Claims	None
Highlights	Done	See section below

Highlights

id807526671

If you use a child care user fee to dump the $36billionchildcarecontributiononlyontorichfamilieswithkidsbelowtheageof3,youendupchargingthosefamiliesanaverageof$31,019 (some families have multiple young kids), which is equal to 9.26 percent of this group’s income. If instead you impose a child care tax to spread the $36billionchildcarecontributionacross\ast \ast \ast all\ast \ast \ast richfamilies,youchargethosefamiliesanaverageof$2,797, which is equal to 0.83 percent of rich people’s income. Notice that in both scenarios, the rich — defined as families with incomes at or above $200,000—arepayingtheexactsameamount:$36 billion. What differs is not how much the rich contributes butrather how that contribution is distributed among the rich.

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id807526680

Dispersing the costs, rather than concentrating them, has a lot of advantages.

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id807526683

less financially burdensome

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id807526687

creates horizontal equality between similar families with different numbers of young children

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id807526692

stabilizes family finances over time

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