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U.S. government should provide living-wage jobs

To the editor:

My boyhood hero, Robert Kennedy, used to say that “Jobs are better than welfare.” As a liberal-progressive Democrat, I agree. But I would add that having a job that pays a good and living wage that is well above the federal government’s “official poverty line” is the human right of every American who is willing to lead a responsible and productive life. Therefore, I am proposing that following the November 2018 elections, our president and Congress reverse the 2017 tax cuts and instead spend $1 trillion on a federal government jobs-creation bill that guarantees a job with dignity and respect to all Americans that not only pays well above the official poverty line, but which also pays well above the “near-poverty line” (which is 100 to 125 percent of the official poverty line).

It is the “humane” and “just” thing to do.

Sincerely,

Stewart Epstein

Rochester

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