Students shouldn't go to cafés? The Washington Post weighs the question and points to a website that does the calculation: "a five-day-a-week $3 latte habit on borrowed money can cost $4,154, when repaid over 10 years."
How bad is that, really? You might easily blow $4,154 on a single vacation after college or getting a few extra options on your car. By contrast, it seems extremely sensible to buy years of a daily pleasure, which gives you some nutrition and focuses your mind and which gets you out of your little room or the library and puts you in a bustling, social environment, where you have your own little table and can get some good studying done.
A café is not just the coffee. It is an entire hours-long experience that contributes to your success as a student. It's true that to be financially savvy you have to realize that you spend a lot of money by spending a small amount of money on a daily basis, but there are much worse daily expenses that call out to students: bars, movies, cigarettes, fatty snacks.
I think the café-going student is operating at a high level, making a good choice. Do the calculation for yourself and think about whether Future You approves of that expense. I think the answer will be yes!
June 18, 2005
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Caffeine is steroids for intellectual work. In this competitive world, no price is too high. It's survival of the jitteriest.
A thousand times "Yes." Law school was hard enough with the escape (read "help") of strong black coffee. And a handful of chocolate-covered espresso beans are good for the Bar exam too.
What good is an economics that finds fault with coffee? Perhaps our net positive would be in not having such economists around...
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli"
Of course you're right!
But the WaPo and the media have to occasionally jab America's favorites, McDonald's and Starbucks, to show their vast superiority in all things and to illustrate what indeed is the matter with Kansas.
GS: On the pro-Lim side, it seems she's only against the tilt caused by debt. She wants students not to undercut their own options by having so much debt that they'll choose corporate law not because they love it but because it pays more.
Head of Royal Intelligence-
Someday you will be wealthy, whether you are a public defender or a corporate hack. The rest of these people are the same ones that some wag once said are born every minute.
Will no one stand up for cigarettes? Coffee is nice for an hour, but cigarettes are a constant delight. Coffee is a friend with benefits; cigarettes are devoted, lifelong spouses. Plus, they make you look way cool.
Sorry for the delete; devoted, or devout, not both at once.
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks for helping with the Social Security imbalance. It's not how long you live that counts, it's whether you found life while you were here. And if cigarettes are meaningful to you and you had a steeper, shorter arc in this world, celebrate that. Good for you, and thanks for contributing to the pot without making withdrawals. We need lots more people like you. Smoking is cool! And a young corpse makes a great, high drama funeral.
Point taken. Didn't mean to offend; I thought modifying cool with 'way' made it clear I was kidding. Your young corpses shot, though, misses the mark. Smokers don't die young, even if too young.
You're right, Andrew. They die looking awful. Perhaps motorcycles, then...
Or little Audi sports cars.
Yeah; motorcycles totally rule!
Maybe it has to do with who's paying the more than $4k. I got an academic scholarship, that is - my university paid for everything but room and board. My first year there, I had to come up with over $500/mo outside of what my school gave me. This was in the late 80s, and I had no real marketable skills. So...I worked 12/wk in work study (the maximum allowed in addition to my scholarship) and 37/wk at my job (at 4.25/hr - no health insurance). I had no money to drink (illegal) alcohol, no money for food beyond what they gave for free at work or what was on the food plan at school, much less whatever it cost for a latte (and they didn't sell them outside of the North End back then).
My sophomore year, I moved into an apartment where I paid $110/mo in rent (In Boston?) in addition to about $20 in utilities. I lowered my rent enough that I could give up the work study and a few hours at the music store. That allowed me to save a little bit up for study abroad (and believe me, you needed it, as anything outside of what you brought with you had to be earned under the table).
In short, if the $4+k for coffee were paid for by mommy and daddy - sure - it's a worthy expense, by all means.
Otherwise, not really.
If I were marketing an overpriced product which went up even further in price every year...and if some of my customers were having budget problems...I might think about launching an attack on some of the *other* things they spend their money on, so they would have more for my product.
Just sayin'
um...am I missing something? Why would anyone, let alone a college student, be buying coffee on credit anyhow? And since when did coffee, let alone cheap coffee, become a right? Question Washington Post, would a story-line like..."Students who have NO PERSONAL (their parents do however, paying their tuitions) worth see no problem in over-extending themselves for COFFEE!
don't have the money? don't buy it! novel idea, no?
I'm with Ann on this one. The "coffee experience" is indeed about the atmosphere, sociability and so on. Even if I've had my morning coffee already (made at home, so I do save a bit there). I still may make it to Starbucks in the evening, either to meet with friends or possibly to read (if I'm tired of being stuck at home on a night with nothing going on).
I also like bottled water--in fact, the Dasani brand made by Coke, as mentioned by a previous commenter. Part of me realizes that, on one level, it's insane to buy water. But, on the other hand, my tap water tastes just plain bad, whereas I really like the Dasani taste (does that make me a "water snob"?). I also take medicine that dehydrates me on occasion, and a bottle of water is enough to last me through an entire class or rehearsal without having to make repeated trips to the water fountain, so I can justify the extra expense.
Oh, and in my post on the subject, I pointed out that Ann's surname would be a cool name for a genre of pop music (alternative crossed with house). Ever heard that one before?
Well, even if it is, it's still better than the stuff that comes out of my faucet; they must remove all the amoebas or something. Besides, it's not like I can just drive from Texas over to England to use their taps... ;-)
nice post
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