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Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States.\\xa0

Parents are expected not only to care for their children but to help them develop the skills they will need to thrive in today\\u2019s socioeconomic reality \\u2014 but most parents, including even the most caring parents on the planet, are not trained in skill development and lack the resources to get help. How do we fix this? The solution, economist Nate Hilger argues, is to ask less of parents, not more. Hilger makes the case that America should consider child development a public investment with a monumental payoff, and suggests that we need a program like Medicare \\u2014 call it Familycare \\u2014 to drive this investment. To make it happen, parents must organize to wield their political power on behalf of children \\u2014 who will always be the largest bloc of disenfranchised people in this country.

In his new book The Parent Trap, Hilger exposes the true costs of our society\\u2019s unrealistic expectations around parenting and lays out a profoundly hopeful blueprint for reform.

Nate G. Hilger is an economist and data scientist in Silicon Valley. His debut book,\\xa0The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis, was listed as Required Reading for Parents by the Next Big Idea Club and named a Favorite Parenting Book of 2022 by\\xa0Greater Good Magazine.\\xa0His work on child development and inequality has been featured in\\xa0The New York Times,\\xa0The Atlantic,\\xa0Vox,\\xa0The Washington Post,\\xa0The Quarterly Journal of Economics,\\xa0and many other media outlets.

George Durham is the executive director of Seattle-based Linksbridge SPC. He has experience leading projects and working with teams in global health and development, corporate social responsibility, and global communications. George has led three Seattle-area nonprofit organizations. An avid cyclist, George commutes nearly every day \\u2013 rain or shine \\u2013 via bicycle, and aspires to ride across the country one day.