re: In distant times gone by...
In case nobody has noticed it, medical and pension care for the aged and poor in this country consumes over 40 percent of the entire Federal budget. That's mandatory spending. Doesn't count any aid in the discretionary budgets, which would include AFDC, housing assistance, education programs, and many others. Nor does it count state and local spending on these things.
Maybe you don't think this is enough--I have never seen any government program in ANY category that believed it had enough money to get the job done--but it's not like this has gone unaddressed in this country.
Maybe unionized government day care centers are the answer. But I doubt it.