Aid for Poor

* In our current era of unsurpassed spending, a thriving stock market, astronomical salaries for executives and other evidence of thriving prosperity, the poor are still having a hard time. There are three steps that could help them to survive:

* Increase the minimum wage to a living wage, or at least closer to that than it now is.

* To enable charities to provide more help to the poor, change the federal income tax law to allow deductions for charitable contributions, regardless of whether the taxpayer qualifies for the IRS standard deduction. This would enable more people to increase their charitable contributions.

* Move away from our present, chaotic profit-based health care system and adopt a federal system of universal health coverage. This would provide more access to health care for the poor (and others).

EDGAR ROSEN

Santa Barbara