Crunching the numbers helps us make care work more visible and comparable to “real” work. The smallness of repeated unremarkable acts (diaper changes, doctor’s appointments, playground visits) acquires weight when the acts are aggregated. At the scale of an individual life or household, care work feels flimsy or invisible. It is often erased almost as soon as it is completed. (Hence, my husband and I frequently tell each other explicitly: “You didn’t see it, but there was a moment this afternoon when the floor was clear.”) The language of economics offers a way to integrate tiny slices of a full life into a visible whole. 

I’m grateful for these forms of summation, which can spark a conversation, but I don’t think they can sustain one.