ABSTRACT
Who pays for the kids? This is the short version of a larger question: How are the costs of caring for ourselves, our children, and other dependents distributed among members of society? These are the costs of social reproduction, and they differ from the costs of production in a number of ways. They are difficult to measure in money. They are paid in the family, as well as in the market, the firm, and the state. They cannot be analyzed in terms of profit maximization or state planning. Success in caring for one another is a precondition for the production of goods and services, but also an end result, a goal.
