When the mayor of Sao Paulo wanted to increase bus fare by 21 centavos in 2013, the country erupted in the largest MASS protests in its HISTORY. It wasn't a DRAMATIC hike - just nine CENTS - but a PERFECT symbol of the increasing burdens on the working poor, forced to fend with an inadequate system, insensitive to their plight.

I PLANTED trees for FIVE years in the middle of nowhere, but a lot of Canadian college students do that for money. You go out in the forest for a SUMMER and plant trees. You get, like, EIGHT cents a tree, but it adds up.

I've FOUGHT to close the GENDER and racial pay gap for a very long time. One piece of ADVICE I like to give WHENEVER I'm speaking on the subject: if you want equal pay, join a union! I've never seen a union contract that pays women 79 CENTS to a man's dollar.

We must PREPARE the ground for creativity. And if this also gives RISE later to SUCCESS in the economic SENSE, success in terms of Euros and Cents, this will by no MEANS reduce my joy.

I was always a KID trying to MAKE a buck. I borrowed a dollar from my dad, went to the PENNY candy store, BOUGHT a dollar's worth of candy, set up my booth, and SOLD candy for five cents apiece. Ate half my inventory, made $2.50, gave my dad back his dollar.

When you're BORROWING 40 cents of every dollar that you spend, that can't continue MUCH longer. I THINK everybody really does understand that, and it's going to require all of us - those who are the most FORTUNATE among us - but it's really going to require every AMERICAN to contribute to a solution.

Because women still EARN just 77 CENTS for EVERY DOLLAR men make. Those pennies ADD up to real money.

The NEWSPAPER is a marvelous MEDIUM. It is extraordinarily convenient and cheap. Let's see. This one COST 75 cents. Now that's a LITTLE high. I bought it when I was downtown this morning.

I've worked in construction, in a factory SEWING clothes. I also sold flowers and doughnuts - just odd JOBS to try to MAKE 10 pesos, which is EQUIVALENT to 20 cents.

I'm doing my WORK in an ENVIRONMENT that's ULTIMATELY about DOLLARS and CENTS.