Harvey Gilbert

Laporte

Who hasn’t heard JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment? The Republican candidate for vice president has repeatedly expressed contempt for women without children, once referring to them as “childless sociopaths.”

In a 2021 interview with fellow misogynist Tucker Carlson, Vance suggested that “childless” people should pay more in taxes than those who “actually have kids” and therefore “a more direct stake in the future of this country.”

What?!

“Childless” Americans contribute more to the economy than those with children — and they already pay higher income taxes because they don’t receive the federal Child Tax Credit.

“Childless” Americans pay the same school taxes as those with children, but do not receive any direct benefits (although everyone benefits from an educated populace).

“Childless” Americans actually pay for other people’s children when their tax dollars support subsidized health care, free school lunches, expanded broadband access and much more.

Contrary to Vance’s assertions, well-educated people who leave the workforce to raise children create a financial drag on the economy. Consider that women’s declining participation in the workforce during the pandemic cost the U.S. economy $650B annually.

Highly-trained professionals, many of whom received government-funded training, who choose to stay home with their children use tax dollars to attain their success, but don’t provide the societal benefit expected from the public investment.

Vance’s narrow, self-centered argument that mothers are more valuable than non-mothers reeks of misogyny–and reveals both his intolerance and his misunderstanding of the American economy.