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This letter from NJFAC Executive Committee member, Marguerite
Rosenthal, was published in the NY Times on January 13, 2009
To the Editor:
I applaud Bob Herbert’s column. If President-elect Barack
Obama fails to achieve an aggressive program to sustain and expand
employment, we are headed for a real domestic disaster. As he
put it, we have an economic emergency.
Mr. Herbert makes the important point that unemployment (and
underemployment) creates a vicious cycle, because those who are
unemployed must draw on public benefits, including unemployment
insurance, food stamps, Medicaid and public assistance. Since
the unemployed generally do not pay taxes, the public coffers
become strained and depleted.
One point he did not make, but is very important — especially
since Mr. Obama has already hinted that he may move to curtail
Social Security benefits — is that the unemployed (as well
as those who are employed but poorly paid) and their potential
employers do not contribute to the Social Security system, thus
making that system less secure and providing more excuses for
cutting benefits.
What our country needs is a true full-employment policy, supported
by government as employer of last resort if needed, where everyone
who wants to work can get a decent job at a living wage. Such
a pro-active policy would go a long way to fulfilling individuals’
and families’ lives as well as securing our promise as the
one nation that Mr. Obama so eloquently called upon us to be.
Marguerite Rosenthal
Jamaica Plain, Mass., Jan. 12, 2009
The writer is a member of the Executive Committee
of National Jobs for All Coalition and professor emerita, School
of Social Work, at Salem State College.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/opinion/l13econ.html?pagewanted=2
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