Rally Highlights Economic Inequality

They demand "free college for all"? And who do they think is supposed to pay for that? I worked part time throughout college, got loans, and paid them all back. I suggest they do the same.

I agree with Swampfox -- personally I think that a sign like that does a disservice to everyone. Free college for all is unrealistic at this point, and making that kind of demand puts most people off. And I doubt that the sponsors -- CT Working Families -- would put 'free college for all' at the top of their priority list. Unfortunately it also makes the conversation about that particular and unrealistic idea rather than about things that are really important: living wages, economic inequality, and closing corporate tax loopholes.

Times are getting desperate when your college educated kid does cartwheels to celebrate landing an internship for the summer where he will work 40 hours per week for free. I applaud the working poor- it's a heck of a lot easier to collect benefits than to work hard (sometimes at multiple jobs) to support a family of one, let alone those with dependents. Unfortunately, our economy is suffering, not only because of top-heavy compensation structures, but also because many workers in the middle are slacking off. I can't tell you how many facebook postings, candy crushing, tweeting, texting and other nonsense goes on during the workday, but for many working without constant supervision, this is a daily routine. Get off the smart phone and the social media and do your job, so this state and country can pull ahead and afford to hire and pay entry level employees well!

To all who say things like.Work for it.The problem is a fair living wage.Have we forgot,It was the crooked bankers and Hedge funders and Wall Street who dumped its fraud-riddled mortgage-backed securities in the pre-crash years help destroyed the middle class.Last can some one answer this question for me.I went to hunter collage in 1971 for 35.00 dollars a credit.Why is collage credits not the same price today.

The more you legislate and micro-manage the economy the harder it is to get ahead. If you paid your average BK worker $15 plus benefits then most customers would stay away. Too much for a burger. The same with Wal-Mart. By offering so much for so little, people have money left over for other things.
Roosevelt spent 10 years trying to legislate the economy. It took a world war to get us out of the Depression. I spend more time trying to figure out whom should I ask in order to get anything done in my contracting business. They have made things so difficult that I don't want to hire anyone else.
I put four family members through college. When the loans to pay for it are so easy to get then the price goes up. The same thing happened to the housing market. Fannie and Freddie lowered their requirements in order to make home ownership easier for everyone. Thanks Barney Frank. The banks followed the leader. More people with easy money equal higher prices. It was how they raised the money for these mortgages that set them up and then the bubble burst.

posted by: ChrisTheContractor on April 15, 2014 7:18pm

The more you legislate and micro-manage the economy the harder it is to get ahead. If you paid your average BK worker $15 plus benefits then most customers would stay away.

Not true.look at the cost of a movie ticket.People still go to the movies.


Fannie and Freddie lowered their requirements in order to make home ownership easier for everyone. Thanks Barney Frank. The banks followed the leader. More people with easy money equal higher prices. It was how they raised the money for these mortgages that set them up and then the bubble burst.

Do not Blame Barney Frank.This start with The Savings and Loan Crisis of 1970s.

One of the largest financial scandals in U.S. history, the Savings and Loan Crisis emerged in the late 1970s and came to a head in the 1980s, finally ending in the early 1990s. In the volatile interest rate climate of the '70s, large numbers of depositors removed their funds from savings and loan institutions (S&Ls;) and put them in money market funds, where they could get higher interest rates since money market funds weren't governed by Regulation Q, which capped the amount of interest S&Ls; could pay to depositors. S&Ls;, which were largely making their money from low-interest mortgages, did not have the means to offer higher interest rates, though they tried to once interest rate ceilings were dropped in the early '80s. As S&L regulations loosened, they engaged in increasingly risky activities, including commercial real estate lending and investments in junk bonds.

My bad.Forgot about these guys.The Keating Five.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

Fewer people should eat at Burger King anyway -- we're all to fat for fast food. And Walmart makes HUGE profits (3rd largest revenue grossing corporation in the world), so they could well afford to pay their workers more and give them health insurance. You realize that your taxes subsidize Walmart's policies because their workers actually qualify for medicaid and food stamps because Walmart pays them so poorly. If you pay people a living wage they also have extra $$ to put back into the economy!

When you demand an end to income inequality do you mean someone who works at a fast food restaurant should get the same as Oprah? When you talk about "food insecurity" and define it as lack of access to "safe and Healthy food" are you really saying you can no longer make the argument that there is "hunger" in Connecticut (and with $4 billion (with a "B") spent on food stamps in CT alone, that would be a hard argument to make. The silly sign "free college for all" says it all. These are all politically motivated (but tiny) rallies in the run-up to the 2014 election--the politics of jealousy.
Look for the ultimate source of the problem--in CT it is the stagnant economy and the anti-business climate (except for Malloy's hedge fund cronies, of course). Vote Republican.