Originally Posted by Val
when debating without having to pay attention to reality
Rather than viewing a thread as a debate, possibly viewing it as a discussion of an article, and especially with the HOPE Lab goal in mind, "...explore counseling and other approaches to help families contend with those costs, and experiment with approaches to lowering the costs while ensuring that students earn degrees of value."

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.