Dear George,

I find it laughable that the Chamber of Commerce is having a program about poverty. This would be akin to a realtor’s group getting together to talk about affordable housing.

I don’t think taking an earned income tax credit will work at Food Lion. Nowhere did I see mentioned:

• Increase the minimum wage
• Mandatory living wage for the city AND surrounding counties
• Force UVA into paying a living wage as our largest employer
• Why, IN GENERAL, is it so expensive to live here?

Perhaps these things were talked about but they were not mentioned in the article.

The only way to pull people out of poverty is for ALL businesses in the area to pay a decent wage. Obviously the Chamber’s members are the business owners who continue to keep folks IN poverty. Why is anyone talking to THEM?

The root problem here is employers continuing to try and do business on the cheap so they can fill their pockets, drive their Mercedes, live in their mcmansions, and send their kids to private schools.

This all has to be done legislatively, not at lunch. These business owners aren’t going to do anything to raise people out of poverty. They must be forced to by law.

Jan Cornell (electronic mail, September 22, 2006)
President
Staff Union at the University of Virginia