1/ Let's discuss this remarkable article in @nytimes about the importance of universal daycare. No, not the @KathaPollitt op-ed from Sunday. An article from 1974 about conditions in the Soviet Union, which sound, well... see if this remind you of anything. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/17/archives/in-soviet-union-day-care-is-the-norm.html

2/ The USSR heavily subsidized daycare. Without that, some families had to "fend for themselves," mothers might "quit their jobs in order to raise their children." Worse, some families "resort" to the "traditional" reliance on extended family. Call yourself a workers' paradise!

3/ Some "middle-class intellectuals" didn't think the daycare was very good. They "disliked having children raised so much of the time by people outside of the family during the early, formative years." But even they "conceded" these are niche concerns, inapplicable to most.

4/ One center's director "exudes enthusiasm" about "the benefits of children being able to grow up in a collective rather than being spoiled by doting parents and grandparents." Generally, we are told, working-class women are "delighted" (because they have no alternative).

5/ What other word could there be besides "delight" when "the vast majority of Soviet families require the salary of a working wife to make ends meet." Indeed, the system has "long been an economic necessity for the state and the family." (Note that "state" comes first there.)

6/ Back in 1974, Soviet citizens "express astonishment when they learn that an American father can support a family of two, three or four children without his wife's working. Many are surprised that American women would willingly have more than one child."

7/ I highly recommend reading the entire article. Note the details: the "semi-illegal" privately run playgroup, the lack of "voluntary and community activities," the skepticism among the "educated," the idea that having multiple children is "suicide"...

8/ ...the way such a system benefits the big cities while neglecting the hinterlands, the lede featuring "the model of the young Soviet mother liberated by a local day care center that permits her to hold a job." Score another point for communism in the "liberating" column!

9/ Now imagine telling an American in 1974: 50 years from now, our families will face these same pressures and we'll embrace this mandatory two-earner structure and push toward this kind of national daycare system... it's what people want, and frankly we won't have a choice.

10/10 He'd assume we lost the Cold War and our economic system had collapsed. "No, no," you tell him. "We won! And our economy has been growing by leaps and bounds! We're more prosperous than ever!" Then he'd shake his head, chuckle, and walk away. Because that's just crazy.