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

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Might I just say, there's a big difference between "just borrow money from your parents" and "if you have to, borrow some money from your parents."

[HagridOfTheDeep]

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.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

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?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Yeah, except you're grossly mischaracterizing the situation.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This is so typical of hack Democrats who hate Romney with such a passion that they are willing to take almost everything he says out of context and blow it out of all proportion.

No... it's because he's radically and dangerously inept and tone-deaf...

For the Romney fans on here: would it have killed him to say, "if you can, borrow money from your parents."? Would that have ruined his message?

Not at all. The point of what I'm saying is: That's basically exactly what Romney said. But because he didn't say it in exactly the way the Democrats would think is "socially acceptable," he's dencounced for it. Do you people legitimately beleve that Romney doesn't realize some people don't have money to lend their kids? Of course he's aware of that. But he's talking to an audience of rich university kids, and he made a suggestion about how to maybe start a business. This isn't the end of the world. But because Romney didn't perfectly streamline exactly what he said, the Dems pounce.

I can't wait till Joe Biden gets into the thick of campaigning. Then we'll see how defensive the liberals are too.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I understand that not everyone's rich. I'm exaggerating to make a point. But the overwhelming majority of the students around that table would have at least come from financially stable families.

"The lowest-income families have lost the most ground, and this is a major factor in their lower rates of college attendance. [...] [T]uition at public four-year colleges and universities represented 13% of income for the lowest-income families in 1980. In 2000, tuition at these colleges and universities equaled 25% of their income.
   
"Despite this decline in affordability, Americans, particularly those from middle- and high-income families, continue to attend college in record numbers. " (http://www.highereducation.org/reports/losing_ground/ar2.shtml)

Even using these numbers (just ripped 'em off the first thing on Google), the poorest families probably could afford to lend that $500 start-up if need really be.

That aside, the point remains that kids from poorer families really don't attend university. There are exceptions to the rule, but I don't think Mitt Romney should be trounced on for refusing to bend his message for a really small minority of people. After all, he's really just offering a positive message of going out into the world and showing some ingenuity. People are just choosingto miss the forest for the trees. If it was as bad as people here are saying it was, it would be all over the news.

And really, Mitt can't walk in there and talk about people who aren't at the university. A candidate does not go to a college and talk to current students about "the folks that aren't here" (the people who can't afford it). That's like... the ultimate guilt trip that Romney tries to fight: "You should apologize for your success" is not exactly a Republican theme.

Lastly, in response to El muerto se ríe del degollado:

You make a point that I think strikes at exactly what I'm trying to say. "Romney is criticized for this because of who he is."

^YES! He is being criticized because it's who he is. He is successful. And you're advocating that we hate him--that he's "the enemy"--because he's rich. This is exactly the class warfare I'm talking about. So what? He's rich. He knows how to make money. That's a good thing. And it was from that background that he was offering students advice on how to do the same.