Or nearly 100% of the second income being hoovered up by the childcare racket, if they have children.

This is very true. We made the choice to have my wife stay home and raise our children rather than go back to work. We're fortunate to be able to do so, but when doing the math and calculating the after-tax income she's bring home, so much of that income would have gone straight to child-care that it was a no-brainier to have her be the caretaker in these early years of their development. The cost of childcare is a very real challenge for the United States.

Ditto here, though we hired a nanny the last 6 months before school-age since a good job opportunity came up for my wife. Now it seems he income just goes to pay taxes.

Exactly, that's why people in this society should all stop having kids. Then the problem will fix itself eventually.