Tighten some belts

To the editor,

It is axiomatic that the youth of our country is its future. Per Friday’s front page Stamford Advocate article (“Funding cuts could eliminate youth services”) it is stated that the Mayor’s Youth Services Bureau is seeking $378,000 to fund its program, which will service about 3,000 Stamford youth. That comes to about $126 per child. Stamford cannot afford not to continue this program. There are plenty of places to cut back in the Stamford budget. If anything this budget should be increased to take in more young people.

I note in a previous article that the schools superintendent (who is doing an excellent job) has a base salary of about $341,000 a year. That salary alone would just about cover the program for 3,000 young people. May I suggest that all the city workers making more than about $75,000 a year should have their salaries cut from between 10-25 percent during this pandemic crisis? If one makes $300,000, can’t that person live on $225,000 for a limited (i.e. three-year) period? We all need to “belt tighten.”

We are now in a new world. The great inequities in salaries, governmental and private, need to be seriously addressed. We need to look to and emulate Scandinavia and other advanced societies. The savings in income inequalities must inure to the benefit of the less benefited. We all share in the greatness of America. If we had not before we now recognize that the often lower-income workers (i.e., the grocery clerks, the caregivers, those servicing in the armed forces, etc) deserve a living wage. Young people need to become part of the system. A first job, often as an intern, broadens one’s experience and future role in society and outlook on life — while financially helping them and their families. In these times it would be a lot wiser to expand such programs, rather than to diminish or eliminate them. Paul Nakian

Stamford