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Student debt bailout pays for hot tubs, spas, rock climbing walls, steaks, movie theaters
Wordpress ^ | August 26, 2022 | Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

Posted on 08/26/2022 1:27:44 PM PDT by grundle

Student debt bailout pays for hot tubs, spas, rock climbing walls, steaks, movie theaters

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

August 26, 2022

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1980 and 2020, regular inflation has caused average prices to increase by 228%. However, during that same time period, college tuition has increased by 1,184%.

Source for image:

And what are colleges doing with all this extra money?

Forbes wrote:

The College Amenities Arms Race

A free movie theater. A 25 person hot tub and spa with a lazy river and whirlpool. A leisure pool with biometric hand scanners for secure entry. A 50 foot climbing wall to make exercise interesting. And a top-of-the-line steak restaurant with free five course meals.

This isn’t a list of items from a resort brochure. They’re facilities you can find on a college campus. And with college construction costs rising, it could be the best four-year getaway you’ve ever had.

In “Country Club as College,” a paper published last year, University of Michigan researchers examined college financial consumption against enrollment.

“We found that the lower ability students and higher income students have a greater willingness to pay for these amenities,” says Brian Jacob, a researcher from the University of Michigan. “The more academic, high achieving students cared about intellectual achievement.”

In other words? Harvard University might not spend approximately $700 million to renovate their campus, but High Point University would. Under the leadership of President Nido Qubein, High Point’s campus has grown into a collegiate theme park, complete with plasma televisions in dorm rooms, a free movie theater, and steak restaurant.  And their five-star, country club accommodations have made the percent admitted decline from 86.1% in 2002 to 64.2% in 2012.

The University of Iowa has an estimated $53 million campus recreation center, complete with an 18 foot diving well, bubble benches, and lazy river. Texas Tech University has a veritable water park in their backyard. California State University, Fullerton has a 30 foot rock wall. And California State University, Long Beach has a $70 million wellness center with hand scanners for secure entry.

So the real problem isn’t a lack of bailout money. The real problem is that colleges are spending money on frivolous luxuries that have nothing to do with education.

Bailing out student loans doesn’t address this problem.

On the contrary. The bailout only gives colleges an incentive to raise their tuition even more.


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1 posted on 08/26/2022 1:27:44 PM PDT by grundle
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To: grundle

Wow is it too late to get a student loan (for a week in Vegas)?


2 posted on 08/26/2022 1:31:15 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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3 posted on 08/26/2022 1:34:06 PM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: Jyotishi

A lot of them pay for Spring Break. I know, my dumb*ss daughter did that.


4 posted on 08/26/2022 1:35:56 PM PDT by MPJackal ("From my cold dead hands.")
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To: grundle

It’s true. The college towns (I’m most familiar with SEC schools) have become resorts. Luxury apartments going on for miles where once there were farms.


5 posted on 08/26/2022 1:38:56 PM PDT by packagingguy
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To: grundle

I put myself through college on the GI Bill. I still ended up with $16k in loans (in today’s dollars). I know, firsthand, as many do, that some of that loan money was used for a spring break trip and for other, ah-hem, non-educational expenses.

I paid back every dime. These deadbeats who are now claiming victim status and whining about not knowing how these loans would affect them are whiny, spoiled brats enabled by Democrat vote buyers.

Think about it. These kids are going to college. They are supposed to be smart, yet they’re too dumb to understand elemental economics? Is that what they are saying?

What about my mortgage? Can I too claim that I was ripped off by the predatory bank who lent me the money? Do I get to join in on this “forgiveness”? Why not? Why is my loan not equal in weight to their loan?


6 posted on 08/26/2022 1:41:28 PM PDT by Obadiah (Finishing is better than starting.)
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To: grundle

It is time to congratulate the Big Education lobbyists.

Well done!

;-)


7 posted on 08/26/2022 1:45:22 PM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: grundle

Do the “students” need to have actually graduated to recieve the bailout or just vote democrat?

Even in the 90’s I remember many “students” that used loan money to pay for cars and living expenses. They took minimal classes and rarely finished. Back then tuition/fees were $1400 but they were giving out $20k in loans.


8 posted on 08/26/2022 1:46:11 PM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: grundle

Pleasure Island, from Pinocchio, and just as deadly.


9 posted on 08/26/2022 1:51:18 PM PDT by Bayard
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To: grundle

“Private” contractor money to the builders.
Think about it.


10 posted on 08/26/2022 1:52:22 PM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite prayer warriors)
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To: grundle

I used some of my student loans to buy components for a pretty sweet sound system.

Those loans have long been paid.


11 posted on 08/26/2022 1:54:53 PM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us )
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To: grundle

spring break $$!


12 posted on 08/26/2022 2:05:14 PM PDT by ronniesgal (Hot fun in the summertime! thanks rjo.)
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To: grundle

I got one student loan back in 1980.

I used it to buy a bicycle for Transportation, though some might feel that a Cinelli Supercourse with Huret Jubilee components and tubular tires might be a little over the top for a ride-it-to-class bike. Yeah, a 17.5-pound steel bicycle.

Sure woulda have been nice if Uncle Sugar had made someone else pay for that!


13 posted on 08/26/2022 2:24:02 PM PDT by Fai Mao
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To: grundle
When my wife was doing the college tours with our kids she was on a campus tour from an upperclassman who showed these amenities and proudly proclaimed they were free to the students. My wife pointed out that they are paid for by the fees parents end up paying.

These things are like an arms race for recruiting students that keeps going higher and higher.

14 posted on 08/26/2022 2:35:47 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Fai Mao

That’s serious old school.


15 posted on 08/26/2022 2:36:30 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: grundle

Geez! They don’t want to get an education, apply it in the real world and work their way up to real money…they want it ALL now.


16 posted on 08/26/2022 2:37:22 PM PDT by TalBlack (We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: grundle
When my wife was doing the college tours with our kids she was on a campus tour from an upperclassman who showed these amenities and proudly proclaimed they were free to the students. My wife pointed out that they are paid for by the fees parents end up paying.

These things are like an arms race for recruiting students that keeps going higher and higher.

17 posted on 08/26/2022 3:02:18 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: packagingguy

I can attest to that.


18 posted on 08/26/2022 3:26:12 PM PDT by Jonny7797
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To: grundle
The real problem is that colleges are spending money on frivolous luxuries that have nothing to do with education.

You think rock climbing walls and hot tubs are bad? Look at the "Diversion Equity and Inclusion" staff.

And this is just at two schools. I'd bet most every major state university has a similar staff.


19 posted on 08/26/2022 3:42:38 PM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Obadiah

They bought into the LIE that a college degree is the pathway to success.

And never stopped to consider that many majors are 100% worthless and are only a pathway to debt.


20 posted on 08/26/2022 3:46:49 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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