Low-Wage Employers

* In the surreal world of politics, welfare recipients are leeches on society. In truth, welfare is corporate (business) welfare and will not change for that reason. It is the public, the taxpayer, who subsidizes the minimum-wage employer. Such employers typically characterize the minimum-wage earner as “part-time,” no medical, retirement or other benefits. Unemployment taxes and disability benefits paid to the state (and IRS via federal form 940) are bargain basement prices.

The system leaves all medical, disability, and living costs to the taxpayers. Yet who among you, even if living alone, could pay your bills on $1,000 per month before taxes?

The problem is not laziness (although some welfare recipients may be), it is lack of recognition that anyone who works should be paid a living wage, have some medical benefits, and in essence, some dignity. It is the workers of the world who produce goods and services, not the investors. If you think otherwise, imagine the functional status of any enterprise in the morning if no one went to work.

MELVIN D. THOMAS

Laguna Niguel