The country’s version of the free market is failing early learning. It doesn’t support the right balance of supply and demand, costs tied to return on investment or decent salaries for the industry’s workers.
There is plenty of support for this argument in a new post “Why Girly Jobs Don’t Pay Well” over on The New York Times Economix blog. The piece looks at how the market fails to support caring services, such as elder care and early learning, and why women tend to work in these fields.
…Caring often creates “outputs” that are not easily captured in market transactions, such as the increases in lifetime capabilities created by excellent kindergarten and preschool teachers.
It’s hard to imagine an explicit contract that could enable a care worker to “capture” the value-added – which extends well beyond increases in lifetime earnings to many less tangible benefits. – “Why Girly Jobs Don’t Pay Well.” NYT, 8/16/10.
Capitalism’s failure to support this work is one reason the U.S. has a large welfare system, according to the blog post.
Indeed, market failures in the provision of these services help explain why we rely heavily on a welfare state that is, not incidentally, often dubbed a nanny state.
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Many of the worst-paying girly jobs – like teaching young children before they enter public kindergarten – pay badly because they get relatively little public support, are poorly regulated and serve families who can’t afford to pay for high-quality services.
There is a lot more in the story that’s worth checking out.
(Thanks to EarlyStories for highlighting this story.)