For your struggling friends, I found the problem: "career people, and they're still struggling to save much of anything after childcare expenses" That just is

For your struggling friends, I found the problem: "career people, and they're still struggling to save much of anything after childcare expenses" That just isn't going to work. It can't. By law in most places, the ratio of childcare workers to children is limited. The work simply doesn't scale. Suppose the ratio is 1:4, and there is a 100% markup on the wages to pay for stuff like the building. Sending 4 kids will thus cost the pay of two workers. Dividing down, just 2 kids will cost as much as the typical parent might earn.