PORTLAND, Maine — Demonstrators evoked the memory of influential labor organizer Cesar Chavez and melded a unified front between students and union workers during a May Day event held Tuesday in Portland.
Nearly 100 turned out in the rain for the rally, which was organized by members of OccupyMaine and the associated Occupy University of Southern Maine, as well as the Maine AFL-CIO and Local 340 of the Teamsters union. Also handing out promotional booklets were members of the Industrial Workers of the World.
“May Day is a celebration and a struggle for workers’ rights around the world,” said John Newton of the Maine AFL-CIO during Tuesday’s rally, his words echoed in rhythm by supporters taking part in Occupy’s “human microphone.” “We face a worldwide economy that’s not working for the workers of the world,” he said.
The event marked the second high-profile appearance by OccupyMaine in a week, following the group’s April 25 Monument Square recognition of “Trillion Dollar Day,” the day when American student loan debt topped $1 trillion.
On Tuesday, cash-strapped university students were joined by sympathizers from organized labor, who rallied around the notion that large corporations and the richest Americans are hoarding the country’s wealth to the detriment of young people and the working class.
“We’ve got corporations running amok,” called out Alan Churchill, vice president of Teamsters Local 340 and president of the Southern Maine Labor Council, from atop the event’s stacked-pallet “soapbox.” “They’re running workers into the ground.”
Students planned a walkout at 10:30 a.m. at USM to start the May Day recognition, followed by a rally at the Portland campus and subsequent march to Congress Square to meet up with OccupyMaine members and local labor leaders. There, the collected demonstrators held signs, welcomed topical speakers and chanted pro-union slogans.
“Workers make it happen in this country,” Doug Bowen, a demonstrator from New Hampshire who returned to Portland on Tuesday after taking part in the Trillion Dollar Day rally last week, told the BDN. “Without the workers, the ‘1 percent’ [most wealthy Americans] would be nothing. Yet, conditions for workers are getting worse and worse. They’re losing jobs, they’re losing wages, and they’re losing benefits.”
Speakers on Tuesday argued that corporate leaders around the country are using the bankruptcy process to push for financial concessions from unions, then selling their lower-cost corporations for higher profits.
University of Southern Maine student Katherine Hulit said that, like labor unions, students must organize to fight tuition increases and lending practices that saddle them with heavy debt loads.
“As students, we are the class of people growingly being exploited by the banks and government,” she said from the soapbox, citing a movement of Quebec students who are banding together in protest of higher education costs in the Canadian province. “As students, we must learn from the labor unions and organize.”
Sara Hight, 17, of Biddeford said she skipped high school for the day to take part in the demonstration.
“I just think it’s really important to come out here and represent our voices when they’re not being heard,” she said.
Ralph Carmona, a 2011 Portland mayoral candidate, told attendees United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez is “our hero.”
Carmona called the contemporary consolidation of wealth by major corporations the “Great Economic Concentration,” and said “we will face that again by organizing for justice” like early labor leaders.
“If we learn from Chavez, we will know there is strength in our despair, and from that we will endure,” he said from the soapbox.
Not lost on the group were comments made by Gov. Paul LePage last week at a town hall meeting in Newport, where he said middle managers in state government are “about as corrupt as you can be.” LePage later added in a letter to state employees meant to clarify his remarks that union leaders are urging members to ignore the governor’s initiatives and “ride it out” until his term’s over.
Churchill said he and other union leaders fight tirelessly for fair wages, benefits and vacation time.
“If that’s considered ‘corrupt,’ that’s OK,” Churchill said after he stepped down from the soapbox Tuesday. “I’ll take that every day.”
Yawn. Same old tired drivel from the “blame everybody but ourselves” Obama supporters.
I think the rich could be soaked a little more.
Exploitation by the Democratic Party maybe. LOL
“University of Southern Maine gender studies and philosophy major Katherine Hulit speaks about student debt on the soap box at a May Day rally in Portland’s Congress Square Tuesday May 1, ”
______________________________________________________________________
Um, a “gender studies and philosophy” major…..yeah, complain more about not being able to get a job with those majors…………are people this naive/delusional? I wonder what kind of job/career this girl is thinking she should be in line for with her degrees?
She could get a job in the second Obama term….oh wait, there won’t be one.
McDonald’s?
Nah, she can just go directly to grad school, get a masters in Gender Studies and then complain more 3 years from now when she can’t find a job with another useless degree in a virtually useless major.
They just don’t get it, and I wonder what advice this kid has received from her parents about her choice of major.
Her parents are definitely liberals……it is truly half of these kids’ problem nowadays….they’ve been brainwashed by brain-dead liberal parents
Parents would be another fine group for the GOP to alienate.
Parents are the GOP
I highly doubt that.
Of course you doubt it. You do not realize who pays the taxes and bills in this country.
That’s one heck of a metaphor.
True too. Just ask us.
Nope. Working is too far below these entitled spoiled ones. They expect to graduate with irrrelevant degrees and have Obama create a job specific for them.
Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.
That’s all you have? Really?
If you have nothing to say,say nothing.
Take your own advice. I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim
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Yeah, Gender studies is a great major for a precursor to MED school or an MBA. Who needs biochemistry anyway?
Many kids nowadays go into college with some major they think is “fun” or whatever, and what do they have 4 years later?…a very difficult time in finding a true career.
Now, if you are using the argument that in order to to to MEd school or get an MBA, you need a 4 year degree 1st(as we know is the case) then sure, all 4 year degrees hold the same value. Heck, she might as well be an art history major or maybe contemporary Russian Literature.
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You must be kidding!! MBA or Med degree?? No wonder China is handing us our shorts!
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Sounds realistic not jealous.
The truth is people go for these fluff degrees because they are easy. Feel free to prove me wrong by quoting any statistics you have for those who go on to MBAs.
Speaking as a person who hires people with real degrees I can tell you right now, she wouldn’t even get an interview at my place.
Those gender studies will come in real handy when she needs to analyze some financial reports or manage employees. She wouldn’t get an interview where I work either.
I hire people also. Resume gender studies …. with little else relevant…. circular file.
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Perhaps she might want to work for someone like cheesecake because that type of person would pay a wage that allows her to live and pay off her student loans.
I chose an English degree when I went to school–because it is my first love. But I freely admit that my BA in English has not gotten me a decent paying job. When I send out my resume, I have to point to my other experience and education in stuff like accounting, science, nursing–because those things will get me a good job.
I graduated in 2006, and am paying off my student loans right now. Student loans at 3.4% interest are an absolute bargain. Nowhere else can the average person get such low rates and such easy terms to pay the loan off. If the average college student can’t take good advantage of the opportunity low-interest, and often subsidized, loans offer–then I must conclude they made poor choices in their education and in their life.
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Oh my gosh…Interest rate set to double, all the way up to…5-6%. On average equals to about $1000 total for undergrads, per month that’s about $6. So what,exactly is her problem?
Very well said!
There you go… Three employers posted here all take a pass on your gender studies degrees and because someone lied to you and told you it was relevant I am the one with the small mind.
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There may be, but the point is, without a professional degree, most lucrative paths will not consider a resume with a Gender Studies major. They simply haven’t acquired the appropriate skills with their education (unless they double major).
The only ” careers that would be offered, would be done so out of patronage from a like minded person in a positions to make a hiring decision based on something other than merit.
Really, why would they want to actually do something, usefully, that they are qualified to do.The nerve.
I wouldn’t hire her after Googling her name and seeing this story.
She’d proberly push for gender specific restrooms.
Don’t need that kind of trouble in the workplace.
I wonder how many who have a degree in her field want to work given their choice of major.
Spoken by someone who probably never managed anything! Right?
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Then why is she complaining if her major has some much employment potential? Sounds like the loan is worth it!
All you can do is copy and paste from other posts about “Those who major in gender studies….”. Saying they could be a financial adviser is like saying I could be a pilot on a C130 because I play Zombie Gunship on my iPad. Give me a break. I’d want more experience than a warrior in justice and peace.
If an applicant has top grades from a respected institution and directly relevant work experience and her resume includes key terms that make it through the filter the HR department of my Fortune 1000 fir employs, then she could land an interview at this company at a location in one of the ten states in which we operate. We hire career oriented, critical , and the CEO has created an environment where a diversity fo ideas are appreciated, so its no longer a company of accountants and engineers. Now she will have to be willing to work outside of Maine, because my firm, like many larger corporations just does not offer the top positions here. That is a fact that has existed at least since I graduated USM in 1980! BTW our CEO was a philisiophy major before making his first $ million…As did Peter Lynch, Carl Ichan, Carly Fiorina, Tony Snow! I know its outside the traditional way of thinking of Maine, but the new century demands a wider apperture!
Obviously spelling, complete sentences and proper grammar are not requirements though.
More a function of auto correct and thinking that I could respond via my cell phone, while riding the rails. In hindsight, perhaps a delay in responding would have been more appropriate! Presume that you get the point!
Sure….
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Actually you were offered something. A couple of learned opinions on the chances of this person finding a job with two employers in the State.
You are the one offering nothing but your opinions.
I would still like to see some stats on how many of these educational lightweights go on to MBAs.
We are commenting on how little this woman and most in the occupy movement have to offer.
Yep, People from China are flooding our shores to major in Gender studies. They plan on shipping all those jobs overseas as soon as they master it.
Personally I would like my physician to have studied biology and biochemistry and even a few communication skills before going to medical school no matter what their gender.
Frankly it scares me a bit that a degree in medicine is being offered to students that majored in “Advanced Topics in Women’s Studies: Women Activists: Warriors for Peace and Justice.” or “WST 360 (860) Feminism and Cinema”
Gender studies would not qualify her for a job in any capacity in any of the companies I managed in a 50 year career. There is little room for “basket weavers” in today’s business!
She might be on the right track for living in her parents’ basement. Let’s see, standing there with a blank look on her face while protesting against “something.”
Yep, she is dialed in.
Yup, so she should stop kvetching about how bad her life sucks and carry on.
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Right!
That is why she is on the street demonstrating against the system that helped her get those wonderful degrees that you say will help her in her future career (and pay off those loans she should not have taken!)
Then she should stop whining and get one of those “potentially good jobs.” Being exploited are you? Go see the shrink. Next thing you know Wall St. will be putting chips in your heads.
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Actually, no. If she’s on track for a lucrative career, as you suggest, the debt will not be a burden. If she’s on track to NOT become a “corporate drone”, well, she should have chosen a more practical major. Either way, she chose to take on the debt, and chose her major, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy.
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I’m not judging those career choices! But if you take on a large loan burden, it is then your responsibility to choose a career that will allow you to pay it back. We can’t all just follow our dreams and expect the government to pick up the tab.
That assumes that these entitled ones want to work.
They DO want to work. Have you not been paying any attention to these protests at all?
Hulit wasn’t griping about not finding a job after earning her degree. What she protests is her obligation to pay for her education. With the backing of blabber-mouth union dude…she and her cohorts insist that evil rich people be on the hook to fund their education. It’s just not fair that they have all the money and we can’t get our hands on it (without going to jail)……..yet?
Hulit and her kind have had a steady drumbeat coming at them, at home and in public schools, that the “rich” should have half their money commandeered and directed to direct deposits, where “the government” will do the redistribution of their wealth to the Hulits, Bowens and sloganeers of the world.
Best post to date on this topic,by far.
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They are about to go back to where they were two years ago.
The House passed a bill 5 days ago to stop new student rates from doubling this summer. Obama is now threatening to veto it Back in 2007 a Democrat-controlled Congress put in place a law that would double student loan interest rates this year. It was Democrats who came up with this rate doubling back in 2007. And it applied to NEW student loans…..not ones that already exist.
Please, other than teaching Philosophy , offering a job to someone with degree’s in these fields is an offer rewarding nothing more than going to College. At best they are” ground work” for obtaining a degree that is relevant in today’s job Markets.
Higher Education has become a weird Pyramid Scheme in the last several decades, this young lady is a shinning example of the product it produce.
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Maybe, but if so then she should stop whining about it and continue on and fulfill the obligations to which she agreed.
She cant have it both ways,justify her choices as a stepping stone then slam those who “put her in this situation”
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Standing up against what? Incredibly low, artificially low ,interest rates? Standing up against choice and opportunity?
It sounds more like standing up against obligations and accountability to me.
Again, you might of well have said a 4 year degree in anything is groundwork for many respectable careers since you need a 4 year degree to get into a masters program. With that logic, why not fill colleges with art history majors too?
Any business that hires anyone with a degree in Gender Studies deserves everything they shall receive….
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If you mean besides the man-hating, victim hood, whining, and rewritten history? Then No.
is gender studies really a major? damn I thought communications at NESCOM was bad
Shouldn’t college students be protesting high tuition rates at the college and not downtown?
Who’s up for organizing the Occupy Higher Education protests?
Tenured left winger professors and higher ed establishment bureaucracy getting rich off of left wing trust fund wannabes and they’re protesting….the banks.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Gender Studies and Philosophy? And I’m supposed to give a crap about this students educational debt? not likely. philosophy is an important part of the human race but if any of these people think that they can get a “paying” job other than teaching. forget it. Common sense is something that can never be taught or learned no matter how much college.
This is like something out of the movie “PCU”. “Which has to go the bisexual Asian studies or the Hockey team”.
“As students, we are the class of people growingly being exploited by the banks and government,” she said from the soapbox,…
You are being exploited by being offfered low interest loans from the government??? Well why don’t you take a stand and not take the loan and therefore free yourself from this tyrannical oppression.
May Day does not celebrate worker rights, it celebrates communism.
Give me that low interest loan. I will start a useful Maine business and contribute instead of WHINING.
Great comment!
May Day was originated IN THE US.Once again,Fox fail.
What? May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries, the May Pole can be traced back to Germanic paganism of Iron Age and early Medieval cultures.
Fox bash fail.
That is true but the original comment referenced the Communism lie and that only.
I see now. yup, that was a silly connection to make. mayday and Communist.
Still a fox bash fail :)
I wonder if anyone does a Maypole anymore after 3rd grade.
Lol, I don’t think so.
If you do your homework,, you will find that May Day has very little to do with communism.
““Without the workers, the ‘1 percent’ [most wealthy Americans] would be nothing. Yet, conditions for workers are getting worse and worse. They’re losing jobs, they’re losing wages, and they’re losing benefits.””
_____________________________________________________________
and without those evil wealthy people, where do the jobs come from?
Without jobs and the Middle Class, where do all those evil, wealthy people come from?
Let me guess, Bill Gates and Donald Trump have “stolen” from you?
University of Maine at Machias is hosting a Democratic Senate Primary Forum at 6:30pm. We will be webcasting at http://machias.edu/umm-live. Tweet your questions for the candidates with the hash tag #UMMLive.
As I posted moments ago. Exploited by the Democratic Party.
If loaning money to students so they can go to school is such an oppressive practice, I propose we immediately end the practice. No more loans.
Agreed. Perhaps with less borrowed money (bank credit) flowing into these universities the mal-investment of the last decade will correct itself and tuition rates will come down, or at least stabilize.
The more loans we make available, especially those backed by our taxdollars, the more we can expect tution rates to increase, pushing the possibility of a college education further and further away from those of modest monetary resources.
“Growingly” is not a real word.
Yawn….
I’ve spoken to many what I thought were intelligent college kids. Ask them about Obamacare, half of them don’t know what it is. Ask them who’s running for office, Many know who is running but know ABSOLUTELY nothing about the Republican candidate. I’m not suggesting the Republican party is always right but these kids don’t even know why they hate them, they just always have. What does that tell you?
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The occmovement keeps raising the dumpster lid to let the stench out, and BDN is there to smell it.
Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.
What is the purpose of the Union being involved in this protest again? The meaning escapes me!
The Union mantra, “Never miss a chance to protest”.
Because SEIU is the largest contributor to the ocCUpy movement. They along with George Soros have funded nearly all of the original Wall Street ocCUpy people, including their attorneys.
Also former ACORN organizers headed up the NYC group.
And here all these years I thought May Day was the day that you made a basket, filled it with candy, knocked on your sweetheart’s door and got her to chase you to win the treat. Leave it to the liberals to turn it into something political!
And leave it to Conservatives to use it to subjegate women!
May Day has been associated with the Labor movement in the US since 1886.
If they really are the 99% why does it seem the majority of people think they are lazy whiners???
If only pictures were on resumes………
In reality they are…..most employers google or facebook prospective employees. Surprise! Look what showed up!!!!!? Pictures.
Want some government cheese with all that WHINING.
I love the sign “Get Big $ out io politics. I guess that means the millions that George Soros gives to O’bama’s campain.
And the fact that the Koch brothers own must of Congress
I’m so sick of you people knowing what’s right for me. BDN cuts me off. Bill tells me I can’t smoke. Republicans tell me that tax breaks are right, while the democrats ask for help. There is no middle ground. We will never see it. I want to move my family deeper in to the woods, and let you fools fight it over. No jobs, yet road repair is too loud. Bring in music….too loud, and I dont like it. Pee on you all….and quit complaining.
I thought you were leaving.
Ted Nugent should keep his mouth shut. (This is the anti- Free Speech comment section, right?)
Not at all. Because they have the right to protest does not mean I don’t have the right to ridicule.
It does not mean the opposition must sit on its hand quietly.
Okay, so what’s the point of the repetitive chanting when the entire audience is at about a 30 foot radius?
nice poncho…
Goodbye, friends. Never will I visit this publication again. I am so sick of The Bangor Daily. I am sick of the BDN censorship, that you will never again see coldbarnocker again.
Bye now.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
“i’m the 99%”… Ok cool. Now get a job and stop standing around all day. We get your message and it hasn’t sparked a revolution. Go away or at least change tactics please. Very annoying.
“University of Southern Maine gender studies and philosophy major Katherine Hulit “. You want to make money to pay off all the loans? Try going to school with a major that will give you a job! Gender studies and philosophy won’t pay the bills, but no, it is easier to picket and demand that I pay off your loans!
Look on the bright side! At least they weren’t planning on blowing up a bridge in Portland. Not that we know of, anyway…
Graduated in 2007 with a business degree and lots of student loan debt. Been in and out of work since the collapse in 08′ and where was I today? In the rain getting my hands dirty. Are colleges too expensive? Yes. Was I not educated enough to know that going to a private school wasn’t the best option? No. Is it my fault that I didn’t do my homework? Yes. Thankfully I’ve had my family for help me through the rough patches (and I’m more thankful than they’ll ever know) and teach me that a little manual labor doesn’t hurt anyone. Not to mention, I’ve lost 10 lbs in the past couple months!
No matter what you’re degree is in folks, whether it’s business or basket weaving as one person pointed out, you don’t have to be a genius to work a shovel, you just have to be motivated enough to want to help yourself. (And a special thanks to my gramp for instilling that lesson early on in life)
You will be despised for telling the truth.
Unfortunately your philosophy is rare these days. The generations before us had it right …
“helping yourself”. That phrase has a whole new meaning today. “Helping yourself” to whatever others will provide is today’s belief.
Wo wo wo wo wooooork? That is a word that a lot of people don’t understand.
Why do these people blame the banks for them
getting loans? Why aren’t they destroying their
colleges who are charging the prices that they
are now complaining they can’t pay? I really don’t
think banks are the ones who are charging these
freeloaders the tuition. Actually anyone who borrows
money for anything should not be required to pay it back.
Why stop at college tuition? The gender study gal really
put her money to good use and now is whining.
What is all this “get a job” nonsense? Maybe you’ve been fortunate enough to have kept your jobs through this recession, and if so I’m glad for you. But the point is the American economy isn’t creating enough jobs, and the jobs that it does create are low-paying, often-times toxic ones. Toxic for the workers, toxic for the environment, toxic for the long-term prospects of the nation.
fizzle fizzle sizzz….like anyone cares…that was so 2011
glad you guys can sit in a park and whatnot. i had to work today :)
Wow, if you needed any proof that personal responsibility has left the building these protestors have done it.
This is an interesting website:
http://the53.tumblr.com/
I always thought that unions were supposed to be for working people?
It’s nice to see that, now that the weather has warmed up, the hippies have vacated the comfort of their adobe huts and Priuses to begin protesting capitalism again
Don’t forget their parents’ basements.
A lot of posters have no knowledge of their own country’s history. I would suggest a refresher covering the period 1870-1917. It would give them some basis for argument in understanding today.
Did everyone have a Cell Phone, Cable TV, free Methadone and a social safety net that did not quit and still whine about how they didn’t have enough?
Or would the people of those days look jealously on what we have today and say wtf are you complaining about?
Would you tell a person that has cancer to pipe down because they could have been dying in the holocaust instead? Of course someone always has or has had it worse, but that’s not what the conversation is about. This isn’t the pain olympics.
How does one respond to this……?
But it’s exactly the argument you’re making. A cancer patient now has advanced treatment, social safety nets, etc. So how can they possibly complain when a person dying in the holocaust didn’t have those things?
That’s not the argument I’m making. That’s the argument you are making for me because I said. “How does one respond to this……?”
“Or would the people of those days look jealously on what we have today and say wtf are you complaining about?”
That’s the argument you’re making. The argument is, you can’t complain about this pain, because there is a worse pain that does or has existed.
Is this a brain twister?
You have to have a twisty brain to follow progressive “logic”.
It’s the argument you’re making. You can keep trying to skirt things, but that’s what you said.
It is obvious you have no knowledge about that period of time and only goes to substantiate my original statement regarding a lack of knowledge of your own country’s history. You have no idea surrounding the parallels between the two periods.
The only clear parallel I can see is the rise and eventual crushing of Progressive thought.
Poke
How about: “trickle down” theory, identity of interest, disparity of wealth, equal pay for women, enfranchisement, right to organize, are just a few. There are several more. Wikipedia doesn’t cover it all.
Advice to students contemplating a line of study 2012: Study philosophy, photography, the environment, the arts and marketing. Stay away from business degrees, economics, healthcare.
This will insure a significant job with a non-profit or government agency, as the surge to shut down industry prevails. Join the effort to remove land from consumptive uses nationwide, while the US population continues to grow rapidly.
Philanthropists will fund your studies. No worries.
(for those who don’t “get it”, this is Sarcasm 101)
Only 100 people there and she’s holding a “We are the 99%” sign. Now that’s funny (if somewhat sad for the delusion it represents).
25,000 people turned out in NYC.
More substantial, but from a population (of NYC) numbering roughly 8.4 million people 25,ooo represents only about 0.2%. The folks proclaiming this 99% nonsense must surely see their ideas are limited in popular support.
Out of what? Eight million!
Nothing like an article about student activism to get the troglodytes out into the light.
I feel bad for these kids. They have been brainwashed into believing liberals will help them when Obama’s policies have had the exact opposite effect. Not only will they be forced to pay for health insurance, higher taxes, bailouts and programs designed to help the elderly. These things will not be around when they need them if Democrats continue to ignore the problem.
And would it better if they were
brainwashed into believing conservatives with help them?
No! It would be better if they adopted the conservative philosopy that they should help themselves!
Any of you making all these rude comments about the protesters remember when a man working in a factory job or as an auto mechanic could buy a home,raise a family, and go on a vacation every year on his income alone? Remember when health insurance cost less than a mortgage? How about when a kid could go to a state university tuition free/ Didn’t think so. Either that or you forgot or you are making a living cleaning wealthy people’s toilets.
At least chambermaids (that I know of) have a knowledge of teamwork! Meaning, if you get water on the floor while cleaning the toilet, it’s not “someone else’s job” to mop it up!
Ever think of the waste and stupidity of ANY business employing people who walk by an overflowing trash can, an open window with the rain pouring in, a broken glass container on the floor, a customer waiting for service … and on and on … because “IT’s NOT MY JOB”!
A generation ago, I knew a man who was a mechanic in a labor union setting. He spent wasted hours (in his opinion) WAITING for the guy with the wrench to do “the job” he was appointed to, in order for him to complete the project. Good wages, good benefits, Yes.
Common sense and efficiency, NO!
Well, now the bulk of the wealth is in hands that have never held a wrench and wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway. The ability to make and use tools is what separates man from the monkeys.
The fact that you believe this nonsense dooms you forever to a certain class. You can change, but it is not likely!
Lots of things were different that you aren’t considering. Houses at that time were much smaller and simpler with fewer appliances, bathrooms, etc, (long list could be put here). The vacation for most people was not at a destination resort costing a month’s income and rarely flying at all. The health insurance paid for a health care system that was unable to even treat at all many diseases and injuries that today are routinely cured or at least maintained for years.
Apples and Oranges.
I can tell you what’s different because I was around then! The buying power of the average worker’s income has fallen through the floor.
It isn’t the buying power that has changed as much as the expectations of what that money should be able to buy.
If you ONLY bought things equivalent to what was bought in those simpler times they you would have no trouble living on a single income.
House of about 1000 sq feet with ONE bathroom, no AC. 19 inch TV with rabbit ears, no cable or satellite. No cell phone, land line with local service only. No video games, computers, cell phones, DVRs, VCRs, microwave ovens, etc. (This list could be REALLY long.) Health insurance that only paid for a bed in a ward and forget probably 90% of the procedures and drugs available today.
You may be thinking of the buying power people thought they had in the 90’s. Buying power fueled with debt and one financial bubble after another. The bill for those excesses is coming due and people like you do not want to face the reality that we are entering a new historical period where austerity and reality is going to be forced on people.
Absolutely great post!
BS!
I remember when I held a job paid for my new wife and daughter’s keep, went to a community college four nights a week Winter and Summer to qualify for an engineering degree program that qualified me to contribute to the future of the United States.
Stop making excuses for losers! You encourage them to continue losing. They need to realize that the world was not made for them. They need to earn a place in it.
They need to lead, follow or just git the H… out of the way!
Quote from KJ:
“As students, we are a class of people that are growingly being
exploited by the banks and by our government,” said Katherine Hulit, a
student at USM.
“Growingly”?
Katherine, you need to spend more time in basic grammar class and less at demonstrations/gender/philosophy classes. Your majors sure won’t get you a job.
Also: why no articles anywhere on why college costs are so high? Salaries/pensions?
I wonder who made the Pyramids in Egypt? I am sure the workers were exploited. Who used to harvest the cotton and tobacco in the plantations? Yep, they had no union reps. How about the children making the ipads so that the protesters can communicate to their facebook friends. I do not think they have any say in the hours worked and wages paid. Protest now because it will make a difference. Look at all the comments on this article for example. Your agenda is moving in the right direction.
The irony is that these social misfits are the 1%. They are the 1% who contribute nothing, zero to society while complaining their free lunch is late.
Oh my, that comment will not stay long…LOL..
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Wanting a better life is not what engenders the ridicule. It’s that we have an entitled generation of whiners whose only way to a better life is to hold out their hand and when it isn’t filled with donations, complain bitterly that they have been lied to (often by their liberal teachers).
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You are way too easy. :)
Listen someone had to tell her that gender studies was relevant in the employment world.
Who better to do than those who secured their income by created teaching jobs for themselves in Gender Studies (has this field of study been taken over by conservatives?) in order to snooker the inexperienced out of their tuition money.
As for this person “making things better”. What exactly is she doing that “makes things better”?
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Lack of foresight on your part…. does not make a crisis on my part.
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Well good for you!!!
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I do fine. Thanks.
The point is not that someone 17 has “incredible foresight”. The point is that her teachers, guidance counselors, and parents should have educated her to the realities and consequences of her choices.
Reminds me of when my daughter’s HS music teacher tried to convince her to study music and an instrument only used in symphony orchestras. (And only 1 per orchestra at that.) I carefully and gently convinced her that might not be the best choice of career. Thank God I was able to do so without really hurting her feelings by having to tell her she really was not very good. I really should have confronted the music teacher and torn her a new one…. But held my tongue at the time. (Still angry with her.)
As for that stock in GM. You might want to learn more about how stock and investment work. You see, that old GM stock that was selling for pennies became worthless when GM went through bankruptcy. The new stock that has been issued never sold for pennies.
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Most liberals are easy.
(couldn’t resist)
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It’s called a sense of humor.
You know, that thing that liberals had removed by their professors in college.
Why is it ridiculing someone when pointing out that they have made poor decisions, their arguments lack logic, and they are out of touch with the real world?
There is no ridicule for those who want a better life. There is lots of disdain for those who want everyone else to pay for their obligations; for those who want to chant about life being unfair because they can’t be allowed to sign for a loan and then skip out on paying it back. Student loans offer very reasonable terms. If you are in a hardship at any point in your life, they also allow deferments, forbearance, and even loan forgiveness–although the latter is not easy to obtain.
Am I the only one who catches the sad irony of students staging a walkout from their college classes to protest the inferior education they are getting and paying for with “excessive” loans?
No! You are absolutely correct!
The students demonstrating are the future losers. The future winners are in class gaining the knowledge they need in useful degree programs. They will be the future pillars of communities and organizations that will make a difference in this world!
These comments are gross. Nothing more than personal attacks. When you disagree with someone, it doesn’t mean you have to have disdain for them.
Disdain and respect are both earned in the real world. These people are just getting what they have earned.
Amen!
Odd how the Teamsters and Alan Churchill can speak ill of the so-called 1%.
As they make more from dues then several corporations. And what would happen to them if there were no corporations to bleed dry.
As far as the students
If they are going to the university of Maine system, It is subsidized by tax payers money.
If not for that then the education bill would be higher.
Heroes all of them.Great to see OWS still doing what it needs to do.
Loser rabble trying to convince the winners that they are wrong!
Why such negativity? There really are some backward thinking people on this forum. These kids need to make a stink it is they’re future that is being sold. Higher education is not some enemy that needs to be attacked. It is an open forum that allows ALL views to be expressed and discussed. ‘Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.’
Anyone who isn’t upset with our countries turn in the last 20 years isn’t looking at the big picture. And they certainly weren’t paying attention in highschool history classes. We are in big trouble. America needs to keep reinventing itself and its people need to keep and open mind. Wake up people. “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment”.
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‘Like’,,,,, remember,, the mightyest oak will eventually rot from within. This rot is being propogated by corporate greed and disregard for the people.
sniff sniff …..I’m a people too.
Pure socialistic BS propagated by losers!
Good luck trying to express or discuss all views on most college campuses.
Could you be more clear? What is a topic that is too taboo for college campuses? Discussion means that there could be some opposing views with points that you would either need to dispute or accept.
huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/is-college-censorship-des_b_485376.html
nysun.com/opinion/college-censorship/53597/
splc.org/wordpress/?cat=16
thefire.org/article/10078.html
lifenews.com/2011/09/16/college-campus-censorship-abortion-activists-dont-trust-women/
These are hardly examples of the gestapo coming down. Republicans are not some persecuted group. It is going to be hard for them to paint themselves as forward thinking.
Any limitations on free speech should be a cause for concern. Limits on college campuses affect the education of young people and limit true diversity of thought. The evidence is that censorship is wide spread, even pervasive, at many college campuses. Even more concerning is the fact that most of the censorship is directed at only one side of the political and social spectrum. The conservative side.
Whether or not some one is considered “forward thinking” in your mind or anyone else is immaterial. There are plenty of ideas from the far left, such as communism, that I could argue are no longer forward thinking either.
But it sounds like you support censorship, as long as it is applied to republicans. So open minded of you.
I have said this more than once on this forum, dont make it personal and don’t pretend you know me or know my beliefs. I can honestly say that I am as moderate as they come. While republican beliefs may be underrepresented on certain college campuses they are more than tolerated in the public spectrum.
“We’ve got corporations running amok,” called out Alan Churchill, vice president of Teamsters Local 340 and president of the Southern Maine Labor Council, from atop the event’s stacked-pallet “soapbox.” “They’re running workers into the ground.”
What corporation is running amok? Identify a single worker by name who is being run into the ground and identify the employer. This hogwash needs to be identified for what it is, puke.
Just another painting with a broad brush…
That is what they do….LOL
Let’s see the deli manager that has started a petition to remove the CEO of Walmart. There is one. Why? “Luna, who is from Mexico, is a member of an
employee group called Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR
Walmart, a group aimed at IMPROVING CONDITIONS FOR THE RETAILER’S WORKERS.”
How is Walmart running amok? They open stores. They employee large numbers of people and nobody forces anybody to either work or shop there.
Fed Ex who does not have employees. They have independent contractors who they do not have to pay overtime or provide benefits to.
What is wrong with using contractors? I think your beef is with the contractors and not those who use purchased services. On the other hand, contractors do have to pay overtime when it is worked.
That would be every minimum wage worker in this state and their employer. Maine’s own Living Wage report shows quite clearly that to just make ends meet you need to earn at least $3/hr more than the minimum wage. So minimum wage earners, all of them, are being run into the ground.
You are talking mostly about mom and pops. The average wage in Maine is far above minimum. Minimum wage earners are running themselves into the ground by not improving their marketable skills and seeking better opportunities.
Shall I continue? See posts below.
Oh, and let us not forget Crystal Sutton (aka Norma Rae) and J P Stevens. She recently died of cancer because her insurance company denied her the medicine to help her. That’s being run into the ground, literally.
LOL. You are using an example from a North Carolina situation forty years ago. She died of a longer term terminal brain cancer. Churchill stated this is occurring now. You failed.
Where is the sign”War On Women”?????
Must be one somewhere,,,,……
“Students” are exploited? Are they being used for medical experimentation?
They are being exploited by the lenders who are recieving millions of dollars in interest payments every year for colledge educations that are often sub-standard and in many cases leave graduating students unprepared for real life eventualities.
Picking a good field of study may help too….
Some of these student do not research a field before they jump in..
So it’s the fault of the Government is what you are saying? You do know that since 2010 and Obama care these loans are fully controlled by the Government, right? You do know that 2-6% interest is pretty cheap rates for folks who generally fall in the 17-26 age group, have little to no work history or credit and have yet to show any ability to pay these off? Is this what you are talking about?
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If they have the desire to do something they should be studying something that will help them to make a living and contribution to society instead of studying things that have no practical value in todays world.
Only young people who come from families having the wealth of the Kennedy’s can really afford to languish in a “basket weaving” course of liberal arts for four years before they take up where their parents have prepared a place for them.
The rest of us must use the privilege of a college education to prepare us for something meaningful like engineering, medicine or law!
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Even if it did–which it is looking like it won’t–it is still a great interest rate for a loan that is unsecured and given to a college student with virtually no credit history. They also offer the loan deferred until six months after you graduate (or leave school). They offer subsidized loans where the interest is paid for by the government until you enter the repayment phase. And if that is not enough–it is fairly easy to get a deferral or forbearance on the loans if you have economic or life hardship. And one of the reasons you can get loans forgiven is if you were taken advantage of by a predatory lender or educational institution.
This is what I don’t understand about this protest. They couldn’t make it any easier to obtain and pay back a loan. You will never, unless you have terrific financial success, find yourself in the position of accessing such liberal credit under such liberal terms. Student loans are making it possible for all students of any economic class to get a college education. All that is required is that you act responsibly. Welcome to adulthood.
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Wonder how many students take out extra money in students loans to buy cars and other high ticket items they want? I know of a few myself and now they’re pleading to have students loans forgiven. Kids should only borrow for educational needs perhaps then they wouldn’t owe so much.
The young lady in the photograph is a poster child for what is wrong with the student debt situation.
She is pursuring a degree in philosophy. What does she ever hope to do with that degree? She could be studying something that would both cost less and prepare her to make a living in this world. Instead she will join the legions of “you-owe-me” types griping about the cost of her student loans that she has no intention of repaying.
Oh well! She will expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab. Isn’t that what the “occupy” movement is all about?