New York Consolidated Laws, Labor Law - LAB § 501. Public policy of state

As a guide to the interpretation and application of this article, the public policy of this state is declared to be as follows:  Economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, welfare, and morale of the people of this state.  Involuntary unemployment is therefore a subject of general interest and concern which requires appropriate action by the legislature to prevent its spread and to lighten its burden, which now so often falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker and his family.  After searching examination of the effects of widespread unemployment within the state, the joint legislative committee on unemployment appointed pursuant to a joint resolution adopted April ninth, nineteen hundred thirty-one, reported to the legislature that “the problem of unemployment can better be met by the so-called compulsory unemployment insurance plan than it is now handled by the barren actualities of poor relief assistance backed by compulsory contribution through taxation.  Once the facts are apprehended this conclusion is precipitated with the certainty of a chemical reaction.”  Taking into account the report of its own committee, together with facts tending to support it which are matters of common knowledge, the legislature therefore declares that in its considered judgment the public good and the well-being of the wage earners of this state require the enactment of this measure for the compulsory setting aside of financial reserves for the benefit of persons unemployed through no fault of their own.