Economics of Caring Improving Population Health by Valuing Care Workers: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023) / Chapter Skim
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2 Perspectives on History, Economic Forces, and Current Reality
2 Perspectives on History, Economic Forces, and Current Reality
Pages 5-12
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From page 5... ...
(Hamilton) • Although care work makes all other work possible, the average pay for home care workers in the United States is $18,200 per year.
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From page 6... ...
Baptist first outlined three categories of dispossession that show how inequities for care workers have accumulated historically -- theft of land from Indigenous people, extraction of labor from enslaved people, and extraction from enslaved people of reproductive labor or the labor required to raise children to adulthood. Regarding the first, Baptist noted that the land included the entire continent and its natural resources, and for the second, historical data, though not perfect, indicates the primacy of cotton cultivated primarily "by enslaved people on land that had been taken from Indigenous people." The third category pertains to reproductive labor, the work not just of carrying a pregnancy and giving birth but also of raising children to adulthood.
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From page 7... ...
Hamilton proposed a care economy with direct public hiring that would improve the quality of jobs and called on policymakers to shift their focus from keeping businesses afloat to what is good for workers and the public infrastructure. Accomplishing such a shift would require centering "universal social benefits like child care, elder care, health care, housing, and quality jobs, economic rights for workers, in particular, including paid family leave, medical leave" as part of investments in the national infrastructure.
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From page 8... ...
But care work is a public good and infrastructure as important as tunnels and bridges, and public policy is needed to treat it as such and build a strong caregiving workforce. These opportunities came before and were squandered, Baptist added, reflecting on the Reconstruction after the Civil War,1 and the opportunity to create policies that would accord women, and especially Black women dignity and fair wages; the New Deal and the safety net that it built for some parts of the workforce; and the Civil Rights movement, in which domestic workers played essential roles.
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From page 9... ...
Hamilton added that the building of such coalitions must transcend alignment of class and should be "grounded in a morality that recognizes our common humanity that is explicit in being anti-racist and anti-sexist." A lesson to be learned from the New Deal is that coalitions formed to advocate for its policies allowed othering people based on their race. Baptist, also reflecting on the view of immigrants, mentioned research that indicates that African Americans born in the United States are more likely to support loosening restrictions on immigration when compared to some immigrant groups.
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From page 10... ...
Poo added that conversations about the care economy are about universal values, or at least universal experiences, as indicated by the public polling on caregiving policies in Build Back Better. She then added that polling indicated that "everybody understands that care work is about the human potential of children, the dignity of older people, the people who raised us, who care for us, the ability of people with disabilities to actually live whole dignified lives in their communities and not be segregated into institutions." These issues, Poo added, are fundamental because they are about being human.
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From page 11... ...
Purnell invited the panelists to offer closing remarks. Poo outlined scenarios of child rearing, onset of disability, and aging in the context of supportive policies that ensure quality, reliable, and dignified care in the community, and she called on audience members to make their voices heard to "underscore the urgency of investing in our care economy." Baptist called for committing to the work of solidarity.
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