the.com/care economy
the trillion-dollar labor of keeping humans alive, mostly unpaid and mostly female.
means the paid and unpaid work of caring for children, the elderly, and the sick that keeps every other economy running.
from feminist economists in the 1980s and 90s, notably marilyn waring, started asking why gdp counts a factory but not a mother, coining the term to make invisible labor visible.
unpaid valueworth roughly 9% of global gdp unpaid
gender gapwomen do three times more unpaid care
fastest growingelder care demand outpacing workers everywhere
gdp blind spotraising a child counts as zero output
for instance
south korea daycare subsidy — 2023 policy paying parents directly to fight birthrate collapse
biden care infrastructure bill — 2021 proposal to fund childcare as literal infrastructure
iceland care strike — 1975, 90% of women stopped all work, economy froze in a day