Congratulations, America! Only the Rich Can Afford to Have Kids in You.

Children are going to be born to Americans who are not wealthy. This is a fact. Those children need to be cared for, for their own good and the good of society—another fact. According to Helen Blank, the director of child care and early learning at the National Women’s Law Center, parents pay about 60 percent of child care costs, the government pays about 39 percent through tax credits or directly subsidizing child care, and the private sector pays less than 1 percent. That’s a calculus that has to change, but there’s no miracle solution, Blank says.

“There’s been progress for 3s and 4s,” Blank explains, with more states funding universal prekindergarten and with Obama proposing a federal tobacco tax to pay for expanded early childhood education. But from birth to toddlerhood, American parents are generally on their own, with only 11 percent of American parents getting any paid family leave after their children are born.