Government-run babysitting

We're always hearing about how impossible it is to get a day care space despite the fact that there are literally thousands of parents who are willing to pay for it. It seems that while the demand is there, the supply is not, and so, over the recent election campaign, the Tories and Liberals decided that government needs to step in by "creating" day care spaces because the private sector won't do it. Obviously there is money to be made here by some entrepreneur who is willing to get into the day care business, however, not too many seem to want to take the opportunity.

Why is child care proving to be such a glaring example of market failure? I suggest it's the same reason why a lot of parents want to put their kids into day care in the first place: no one wants to be up to their elbows in poo, puke and tears all day long. Can't say I blame them, but then again, I don't have any kids of my own.

I know some would say that the economy demands that two parents work ... well, I beg to differ. A lot of the people who are complaining about the lack of day care spaces live in two-storey brick homes while we turn hung-over, 22-year old early childhood education grads into basically unionized bureaucrats along the lines of postal workers and garbagemen. It's impossible to credibly argue that child care should be treated as a public good (in other words, something that is fundamentally impossible for the private sector to provide) like national defence, and I think it's a sad commentary on society that we have the nanny state proving to be more than just a pejorative term used by so-called conservatives.