Elliot Golan
Dear Collegiate Consumers,
Undergraduate college students have higher credit card balances than ever.
Though some of this is due to the escalating cost of education, the growing focus on extraneous possessions is to blame.
When a college student opens their wallet, it seems as though a clutter of ATM and purchase receipts is all that is found.
“The things you own end up owning you.” This quote from the movie Fight Club illustrates the problem clearly.
Students often find themselves working dead-end jobs, waiting tables or slinging caffeine just to scrape up enough money to pay the rent. As the end of every month approaches, their cries of fiscal futility echo throughout their social circles.
And yet, somehow the battle between a lustrous new iPad and the rent actually requires consideration.
So in a classic uncompromising fashion, always desiring a life beyond means, students turn to a credit card for salvation.
… Then the bill arrives.
In a 2009 study by Sallie Mae entitled “How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards,” the mean debt is $3,173.
The ridiculous infatuation with celebrities and slave-like obedience to trend is responsible. If one doesn’t posses an iPhone, they seem inferior to the rest of the world, somehow secluded from the inner sanctum of civilization. And everyone seems to want to wear the same clothes that the likes of Miley Cyrus and Mike “The Situation” do.
Never mind that a simple Ed Hardy T-shirt, which is seemingly as popular as a textbook on a college campus, can cost well over $100.
Funny how one can hear cries about textbook costs over conversations on a pricey Blackberry that costs more than $100 a month to maintain. Meanwhile, their outfit adds up to a car payment.
All of these grossly overpriced shiny boxes with buttons and designer clothes that students waste their life savings on do not bring happiness.
Only debt.
When did we students get so vain? So focused on all the wrong things?
Nobody needs any of this.
They are just things. They are not the reason we drudge over hot stoves and serve unappreciative customers, sucking up for an extra dollar at the end. They are not what this life is all about.
It is time to stop holding the tricky wording and the wrongdoings of the banking industry accountable. They are not the reason for this financial fallout.
You are.
Respectfully,
Concerned College Student
