<p>I don’t think you encourage people to make imprudent expenditures, Hunt. I’ve read a lot of what you’ve written and I think your responses are well thought out and generally make a lot of sense. There are people here who have encouraged ill thought out expenditures, though, and later regretted it. I think that’s unfortunate.</p>
<p>I do believe people buy stuff they can’t afford, but I think it’s a mistake to let young people and/or misguided parents take on debt of the magnitude we’re talking about. I think it’s particularly important for people on CC not to encourage it but I think, in a round about way, some are. It’s nice to tell a family that you think the affordable state flagship is fine when they’re agonizing over not being able to afford Name Brand U, but some of the people saying that don’t really believe State U is fine. It doesn’t take too many threads to understand that what they mean is that State U is fine for YOU. PG is right that what people spend is on them, but where and how we present our opinions is on us. We need to be mindful, always, of what influence we may have and the potential harm we can do.</p>