I know who: Uncle Sam. THAT'S who.
Hello, after school programs?
Hello, "universal preschool"?
Elevated taxation raises the cost of everything, on one side, while simultaneously reducing descretionary income on the other. This puts the family smack in the middle, trying to create and maintain some comfortable standard of living with a constantly shrinking pool of incoming capital. At some point, you're right: you pass a threshold where you either relocate to a lower-cost area(if possible), or Mom gets forced into employee status.
I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but connect these dots:
The SAME people most culpable for elevated taxation
are the SAME people most gung-ho for public education
are the SAME people most reliant on the votes of the underinformed to retain thair power
are the SAME people promoting cradle-to-grave government involvement in our lives
are the SAME people constantly banging the drum of socialized medicine
...
Do you start to see a pattern indicating an insatiable desire for micromanagerial control of every aspect of your life and mine? And how better to achieve that control than to push policies that impact families in ways that drive them toward more reliance on the "services" of government?
If we drive prices up to where there are enough two-income families, then housing prices will rise to meet the bar of those dual-incomes, forcing MORE families into dual-income status, with a decent house as the carrot at the end of the stick. And, who DOESN'T want a decent house; especially the woman of the house? Most men could live just fine in a thatch-roofed lean-to with dirt floors; most women, by contrast, want a nice place that is clean, quiet, and comfortable; a place that feels SECURE. Talk about "temptation"; that's a HUGE draw.
Having thus beguiled Mom into getting out the front door to go to work, there's no budget-minded recourse for the kids but to tromp down the street to the local public school for a dose of Uncle Sam's finest curricular offerings where, 13 years later, little Johnny emerges from High School and his supreme goals in life are to get a set of 22" spinners for his "ghetto sled", a cell phone with blue tooth, an iPod, and the newest CD from Snoop Dogg. He can hardly read; can't write worth a tinker's dam; spells strictly phonetically, when he feels like making the effort, which is rarely; has had four jobs in the last 18 months and been fired from all of them over issues of self-discipline and personal responsibility. He's got no plans, no prospects, and has no problem with that.
BUT, back at the house, there are two people who have a BIG problem with that; two overworked, overtaxed, and completely bewildered parents, shaking their heads about it all, looking at each other and mutually wondering, "What the Hell did we do wrong? How has it come to THIS?" and feeling, correctly, that they have somehow been suckered.
Game over. Uncle Sam wins.
And to think: it all gets rolling downhill with tax increases. Sorta brings the culpable party into sharp focus, doesn't it??
Oh, but ain't that America
For you and me, Baby
Ain't that America
We're somethin' ta see, baby
Ain't that America
Home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me