"Mayor Zohran Mamdani was sworn in this month after a historic campaign that galvanized New York City voters with a bold, inclusive vision: housing for all, childcare for all, public transit for all. It was a vision rooted in universality-one that treated dignity and access not as privileges, but as rights. Yet one essential "For All" remains absent from the mayor's agenda list: good jobs for all."
"In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt-who rose to national leadership from New York's governorship-declared that political freedom cannot exist without economic security. In his historic proposal of an Economic Bill of Rights, the right to a 'useful and remunerative job' was the central, fundamental guarantee, and, he would later assert, the guarantee made other economic rights achievable. Employment, Roosevelt insisted, was not merely a market outcome but a public responsibility, essential to dignity and democracy."
Zohran Mamdani's inaugural vision prioritized universal housing, childcare, and public transit but omitted a guarantee of dignified employment. Wage increases alone fail people who lack stable work; access to living-wage, socially useful jobs is necessary for economic security and inclusion. The 1944 Economic Bill of Rights framed employment as a public responsibility and the basis for other economic rights. Current policy shifts burden joblessness on individuals instead of institutions. A voluntary public jobs option offering living wages, benefits, health care, and union protections would raise the wage floor and stabilize the economy during downturns.
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