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November 18, 2012

We have a subsidized governmental economy

Newburyport Daily News

To the editor:

There is speculation as to what will be the top priority during Obama’s second term. Unfortunately, no mention was made during the presidential campaign of the plight of tens of millions of employees who are working part-time at low wages and who are not striving entrepreneurs. There can be no real economic recovery if workers cannot earn a living wage, afford food, shelter and education for their children, and buy the goods and services of the private sector.

Corporations, businesses, colleges and universities have learned that they are now free, with the decline of labor unions, to create a part-time economy with stagnant wages and devoid of benefits. If you are someone who is seemingly not affected by this shift away from living wages, think again. What has been created is a subsidized governmental economy. The taxpayer is now responsible for making up the difference between part-time wages and a living wage, through food stamps, Medicaid and other social programs. While the GOP has been railing against “big government,” its major supporters, employers of low-wage and part-time workers, have been using government programs, for which all of us have been paying, to subsidize their payrolls.

Alfred Moskowitz

Newburyport

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