Nancy Folbre

Taxing the Top

21 October 2025

As the distribution of both wealth and income has become unequal, political efforts to tax the top to finance investment in public goods like childcare have gained traction.

The Motherhood Gamble

14 October 2025

While many mothers will enjoy adequate support from a partner, a considerable number are likely to pay a disproportionate share of the costs of raising children, putting their families at risk of poverty.

The Underestimated “Price of Parenting”

18 September 2025

The private cost of raising children in the United States is at least twice as high as recent estimates suggest.

More Babies or Better Care for Newborns? 

27 August 2025

Pronatalists show remarkably little concern for the well-being of children already born—or their parents.

Medicaid Kayfabe: Fake Wrestling

21 July 2025

A close look at the games Republicans played with their Big Bad Cuts to Medicaid.

Medicaid Football

16 June 2025

Putting Congressional debate over health insurance into context.

The Stealthy Strategy to Strangle Medicaid

16 June 2025

Republicans want to make it even harder for low-income people to get health care.

The Immigrants’ Goodbye

20 January 2025

New restrictions on legal immigration, combined with rapid deportation of the undocumented, will likely worsen already painful shortfalls of paid health care, elder care, and child care services in the U.S.

Death by Austerity

6 January 2025

Some kinds of efficiency are about making money. Other kinds are about saving lives and developing human capabilities.

The Rise of Anti-Care

18 November 2024

Some post-U.S. election advice: keep the faith and fight the backlash.

Having Children and Saving the World

15 September 2024

Pro-natalists don’t seem to realize that “having” children requires both caring and paying for them.

Understanding the  Care Economy

5 August 2024

Why we need better data on the care economy, how we can get it, and what we could do with it.