<p>Let’s see, perhaps these same people should stop buying art? Going to the theater?</p>
<p>Where would those people work?</p>
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<p>In addition to Mini’s #116 comment about Burberry clothing, it has also become closely identified with the culture of the British ne’er do well underclass popularly known there as “Chavs”. </p>
<p>This has become such an issue that Burberry has been reported to be expending all the PR stops to disassociate themselves from this close cultural association in Britain. </p>
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<p>If some of my older cousins who were undergrads in that era dared to display such a poster in their rooms in high school or college, even the ones with highly successful upper-middle class business executive/engineer parents, their parents would be disappointed and livid their children have such crass limited mercenary visions of the purpose of a college education. </p>
<p>If they were in college, their parents would be inclined to cut off further undergrad funding and have them work a service/retail industry type job or enlist in the military to “have that entitled attitude adjusted”. </p>
<p>If in high school, they’d be warned that this exhibited attitude shows they don’t fully appreciate what a college education should be about and thus, should postpone going off to college until they “adjust that attitude”. </p>
<p>Granted, I understand the attitudes of those aunts and uncles…which I share are considered extremely old fashioned and out of vogue nowadays.</p>
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<p>Exactly. My children didn’t “earn” the money for their clothing - I gave it to them (freely, as befit my budget and what I desired to spend). That’s exactly the same whether my budget allows for Target and the Macy’s sale rack, or Nordstrom and Neiman’s.</p>
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<p>“Deserve” is an interesting concept. We took our kids to Europe as a high school graduation gift. Did they “deserve” that? In our eyes, they did, as they were / are good, hard-working kids and we wanted to treat them. We flew over business class. Did they “deserve” to go over business class? Does it matter if I had shelled out the $ for business class or if I got business class by redeeming miles that I worked hard to earn through business travel? </p>
<p>For that matter, do they “deserve” to be full-pay, when other kids aren’t?</p>
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<p>Sure. But the situation we were discussing here isn’t parents who spend on nice things for their children, and consequently don’t have any money to spend on their education." The situation we are discussing is presumably parents who have the money to spend on both college education and nice things.</p>
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<p>Why? Do you think it’s “uppity” to call it a concierge? If it performs the same function, what difference does it make? I don’t want my kids to be the kinds of people who are “intimidated” by a concierge, at a hotel or otherwise.</p>
<p>Yes, I think it’s pretentious to call a college information desk a concierge. I’m not intimidated by it; it makes me giggle. :)</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily think it’s pretentious, but I think it’s kind of misleading, as to me an information desk gives away the same information (but doesn’t arrange anything for anybody) and a concierge arranges things for people.</p>
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<p>Bolded the part that made my jaw drop. Yes, life’s not fair. We’re all well aware that some people didn’t earn or don’t deserve their good fortune. And by the time someone is in college they should be able to deal with that, fercryinoutloud. :rolleyes: </p>
<p>My favorite use of concierge: [“Concierge</a>” clip from 1968 Mel Brrooks’ “The Producers” - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6mTMShVyk]"Concierge”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6mTMShVyk) :D</p>
<p><You don’t have to spend your money that way. Would it be better if nobody bought anything expensive or ate in any expensive restaurants? Where would those people work, now?</p>
<p>No, really, I think this is a serious question. What do you suppose those who work in these fields ought to do for a living instead? what is your proposal></p>
<p>Absolutely agree–many many people make a nice living off the rich and rich wannabes.</p>
<p>Five numbers. One for each finger on my left hand:</p>
<p>56, 55, 49, 46, 41.</p>
<p>Those numbers represent the percentage of students in the most recent freshman class at Dartmouth, Georgetown, George Washington, Yale and Princeton, respectively, who are NOT eligible for need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>The above generally means that these students come from the upper SES, although not in 100% of the cases. Keep in mind, also, that these schools all define “need” differently.</p>
<p>I don’t see GWU as any sort of outlier, but I guess it made for a good story.</p>
<p>Going back to the topic, while GWU has really ramped up their academic quality over the last decade, it really had a rich kid’s school feel when a younger cousin attended and graduated in the early '00s. </p>
<p>As one who came from a well-to-do Mississippi family and attended a NE prep school, even he was aware of that rep and from his perspective and experiences…it was well-deserved. He also loved dressing up so in many ways, GWU was an excellent fit for him even though he’s well aware his college’s campus culture isn’t a great fit for many others. </p>
<p>Something which I can understand as I doubt most students who prefer applying to colleges like Oberlin for social fit reasons are likely to find the campus culture of colleges like GWU to be congenial.</p>
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<p>Probably because nowadays economics has intruded into the situation. Attending college is much more expensive these days, and the entry level job market is not any better these days.</p>
<p>College is more expensive now, but colleges have not traditionally been “in the business” of educating the impoverished in this country. It is a new mission. It is a state university mission. It is certainly a very worthwhile mission. But it has never been, until fairly recently, the provenance of the private university. </p>
<p>In the meantime, with the exception of very few very well endowed schools, endowed by their wealthy alumni and supporters, by the way, most private schools need somebody to help pay the bills.</p>
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<p>You can’t control how other people react to you. Do what you think is right and don’t worry about the rest of it.</p>
<p>I simply cannot comprehend why people get all spun up over someone else’s consumption habit. Do people really have nothing of substance to discuss?</p>
<p>I never understood why there is not one college out there that just caters to the upperclass. Maybe there is one an I don’t know about them. I would love to see what would happen if only very smart rich people were admitted. I am sure some people would be much happier with this model.</p>
<p>:)Some very smart rich parents want their very smart kids to socialize with students from a wide variety of backgrounds. That is part of the education they are seeking for their offspring.;)</p>
<p>Probably posted this when we last discussed handbags:
<a href=“Carried Away - The Atlantic”>Carried Away - The Atlantic;
<p>Handbags are powerful things. Instead of waterboarding, we should smother terrorists with designer handbags, symbols of Western materialism, until they break.</p>
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<p>Since almost all male terrorists have serious issues with their sense of masculinity, this idea may have much merit. </p>
<p>However, the ICC may feel this constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” :D</p>
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<p>Perhaps the schools that offer poor financial aid count. Of course, they don’t mind if some poorer students take unwise amounts of student loans to attend, since they get to college the tuition money anyway.</p>