It is a short ride from Redding to Waterbury, only about thirty miles, but it can be an interesting trip. You head out of a gated community on Mark Twain Lane and turn on to Diamond Hill Road. It is the beautiful bucolic Connecticut. You take Green Pasture Road and eventually end up on Church Hill Road before heading north on Poverty Hollow Road. You pass between Huntington State Park and Palestine. After Sugar Hill and a few more turns you are on I-84 heading into Waterbury.

Yet in many ways, these two municipalities are worlds apart. Jake DeSantis lives in Redding. Until recently, he was an Executive Vice President at AIG Financial Products. Yet with all the complaints about taxpayer money going to AIG Executives, Mr. DeSantis resigned from AIG and promised to give the after tax value of $742,000 of the bonus he received to charity, and complained about people being upset about the AIG Executives.

Back in the 06702 zipcode of Waterbury, the median household income is $11,913. In other words, this bonus that Mr. DeSantis can afford to give away, after quitting his job is equivalent to the median household income of over sixty-two households in Waterbury. Of course that’s not completely fair. That is comparing his after tax dollars with Waterbury residents’ pretax dollars. If you compare the pre-tax dollars to pre-tax dollars, the ratio is even more striking.

With the hundreds of homes in foreclosure in Waterbury, I suspect there aren’t many people that could afford to quit their jobs. Perhaps Mr. DeSantis can use some of his free time and volunteer at the St. Vincent DePaul Society Soup Kitchen or homeless shelter.