Mitt Romney Says to College Students: "Just Borrow Money from your Parents"

[Stranger in a strange land]

Romney was speaking before a crowd of students at Otterbein University, a private college that costs about $30K/year. Most of the kids in the audience have parents of means.

No they don't. A lot of the kids are financing their education through loans or are there because they got financial aid. According to CollegeStats, 99% of students at Otterbein University are receiving some form of financial aid, and 71% have taken out student loans.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Romney was speaking before a crowd of students at Otterbein University, a private college that costs about $30K/year. Most of the kids in the audience have parents of means.

No they don't. A lot of the kids are financing their education through loans or are there because they got financial aid. According to CollegeStats, 99% of students at Otterbein University are receiving some form of financial aid, and 71% have taken out student loans.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Let me just stop you there. At any university you go to, almost everyone recieves some sort of"financial aid." And I'll tell you, it's not much of anything. Small automatic entrance scholarships are grades-based and given out all the time, whether you need them or not. It's a cheap way to make the school look generous. Also, student loans aren't this surefire way of deciding who's poor. My parents could probably pay my full way through university if they really wanted to (mind you, it would be tough), but I'm responsible for half of it because that's the way it is. So I have student loans. That doesn't mean my parents would be incapable of lending me $500 if I wanted to start a business (key word here is lending). Hell, the only way they'd be incapable of lending that money would be if I didn't have those student loans.

Student loans are a symbol of convenience, not necessarily poverty. I'd guess there are very few university students from families below the poverty line, for the simple reason that those people hardly even have the means to go.

Okay, but there's a big difference between a family being above the poverty line and a family that can has $10-50,000 sitting around to lend their kid so he can start a business. Just what type of business do you think you can start with $500? And remember that most new businesses fail. Yes, many people who take out student loans are far from poor. However, education is so expensive nowadays that even middle class families often have to take out loans, especially if their homes are underwater or if they've had their savings wiped out by the market over the past few years.

[Stranger in a strange land]

About the only licit business that I can imagine someone now stating [sic] on $500 is a food cart or door-to-door selling.

And that shows your lack of imagination.  Also bear in mind that virtually all of these college students already own computers, and many already own decent suits.

You need a lot more than a suit and a computer for a tech start-up. Maybe that's all you need if you just want to develop your idea, but to take it anywhere, you need web hosting, servers, coders, developers, etc, who may not be willing to work for free. You need an office, because in many cases investors won't talk to you unless you have a physical address.  Plus remember, the kids have to eat and in many cases pay rent while they're doing all of this.

[Stranger in a strange land]

This type of debate is actually really irritating me. This is the class warfare we are warned about. Why should anyone have to be defensive about any of this?

Being born into money is nothing to be ashamed of. Not understanding that there are other people who aren't, even as an adult past middle age, is.