To the Editor,

Thank you for your article on the challenges facing New York City's squeezed middle class (Crain's, Feb. 6). However, it was disappointing to read the same tired proposals promoting tax cuts as the sole means to create middle class jobs.

Instead of limiting ourselves to tax cuts that ultimately undercut funding for the public sector, which maintains the firehouses and schools that the middle class relies on, we should think creatively about other ways to reduce costs for New York's businesses and middle-class families. One particularly burdensome expense both groups face is the high cost of insurance, particularly health insurance. Restoring the State Insurance Superintendent's ability to deny or moderate health insurance rate increases would go a long way toward reducing this burden. 

We should also look for ways to turn New York's existing jobs into positions offering middle-class incomes and benefits. Unions can and do elevate jobs to provide a middle-class standard of living. Manufacturing jobs were once sweatshop jobs but unionization changed that. Workers know this. The recent successful union drive at sneaker chain Footo and human services nonprofit Lifespire recently demonstrated what New Yorkers will do to join a union, a direct route out of poverty.

Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy