Student Spending, What's Up?

This post concerns the issue of student spending. It's up. And not everyone is happy about it. Of course, in the wake of such a concern, we must ask if we are spending too much on anything else. That is the point of two magazine articles, one in general Canadian newsmagazine Maclean's; the other in the Briarpatch, an independent magazine. Generation Spend discusses how youth spend their disposable income, and how it puts parents in serious debt. Generation Debt discusses how students must apply for financial assistance when heading off for university, and are burdened with debt from their educational expenses, which prohibit them from taking graduate programs.

The first article also discusses how students are actually pressured to spend with covert advertising and are fighting back (with the help of others, of course). Meanwhile, the second one focuses on students rallying for lower student expenses in the wake of rising tuition fees. Essentially, Maclean's here is focusing on impulsive spending, and Briarpatch is dealing with rising student expenses and their toll on education.

As the interesting thing here is that both deal with one thing, and that's spending, one must ask, what are Canadian students doing to save for post-secondary education. Why are youth spending like mad, while university expenses are going up? I do believe that teaching young people like me on saving is quite important, especially while tuition is high. But yes, tuition has to go down, and NOW! Hey, I'm in strong favour of lower tuition, so let's just hope the new Prime Minister, as someone who quite recently came out university, knows exactly what our problems are.