College students need stimulation. In a lot of ways.
But college students are out of luck when it comes to the government “stimulus” checks that are raining down across communities all over
Why? Because if your parents can claim you as a dependent, as is the case with most college students in the world, then you don’t get the $600.00 that President Bush and Congress promised every American.
But never fear; there is a method to this madness. Allegedly. The cash theoretically meant for taxpaying young people is instead supposed to go to their parents, increasing their tax rebate by that much more, which is a fine idea.
More power to the parents. They shoulder a big load raising their children and helping them get through college, and I’m glad that the government had the foresight to reward them with extra cash.
That is, I would be glad that the government had that foresight. The only problem is, they didn’t. Instead, parents only get the extra money if their claimed child is less than 17 years old, which certainly doesn’t seem all that fair.
In fact, there’s only one thing that those two parameters in the stimulus package could be intended to achieve, and it was no accident – college students were deliberately targeted not to be stimulated.
Maybe some observers don’t think it’s a big deal — after all, what do college students have to pay for? They don’t have many bills, and not a lot of debt compared to their adult counterparts.
Exactly. And that’s why they needed to get those stimulus checks.
If you’re looking to stimulate the economy, getting money to college students should be one of the most important parts of your plan.
Most young people won’t spend the majority of their checks at Wal-Mart, which ships our money to
And recent polling suggests that Americans will be using their checks to pay off debt, not to buy things, as the government intends. For the most part, however, college students won’t be saving their money, or using it to pay off past debt.
No, quite simply, they’ll be having fun. Going to see movies, buying clothes, eating out at restaurants, going out for drinks, seeing sporting events — you know, actually doing things the economy needs people to do in order to be invigorated.
Stimulating the local economy, or at least the broader American economy, creates jobs and helps to keep service industries, which typically struggle in times of recession, afloat.
College students are often lampooned by society and chastised by their parents as reckless – irresponsible with their money and their free time. They’re mass hyper-consumers of the highest order.
But do you know who loves these traits? Business owners, that’s who. Just like everything else in college-land, businesses are definitely stimulated by bright, young, eager students.
In fact, according to the Department of Labor’s Consumer Expenditure Survey, Americans under the age of 25 spend 96% of their income annually, compared with only around 75% among all other age groups.
So if our government’s plan to cut college students out of the Economic Stimulus Package was somehow tied to the idea that students they wouldn’t stimulate the economy, we can safely say they were wrong.
I certainly understand the argument that younger people don’t “deserve” an injection of cash, but that’s not what these checks are supposedly for. These checks are to encourage spending and invigorate the economy.
And leaving
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