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Because single mothers exist, so supporting a family on one income is needed to ensure a minimal amount of suffering happens to children who didn't ask to be poor, and have no way of opting out of poverty.

Also, modest = minimal by the original standards.

Historical context: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/minimum_wage

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It's much better to identify single mothers and make sure their kids are OK with welfare than make the national minimum wage enough to do so.

Better for whom?

Better for the people paying the wages and the other consumers of those people's goods and services, and for workers who are employable only at particularly low wages.

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