Originally Posted by indigo
Originally Posted by Val
Most importantly: assume that other people are irresponsible and that all the homelessness and food insecurity are due to $200 a month phone plans and expensive vacations.
This exaggerates what was actually said, essentially making a strawman argument to discredit the person you attribute this to.

Rather than exaggerating, I understated sanne's assumptions:

Originally Posted by sanne
Eating out, road trips, multiple pets, commuting, fancy new everything, smart phones. I came to the conclusion that financial aid for tuition helps people make stupid financial decisions and bomb their college classes.

...

Perhaps the research should have also noted if those struggling students were paying for smart phones, data plans, had purchased a laptop, tablet, or new phone in the past 2 years? Those things are luxuries and I have little sympathy [for someone] who spends $200 a month on a cell phone and data plan and then complains they can't eat for 4 days in a month because they ran out of money.