Literature Review #4

Citation:Shaffer, Leigh S. Live Like the Affluent in College, Live Like a Student After Graduation. Mar. 2012.

Summary:
Live Like the Affluent in College, Live Like a Student After Graduation discusses the thinking behind a college student's spending choices. College students appear to be stuck in premature affluence, referring to students whose parents provided for them and allowed them to spend money without discretion, and thus spend the same way in college despite living in different circumstances. The piece defines a number of expenses students unwisely spend money on, including entertainment, cosmetics/fashion, and travel.

Author:Leigh S. Shaffer - Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at West Chester University

Quotes:

"Bachman called their use of spending money affluence because it represented what economists traditionally called discretionary spending— that is, money spent on items beyond their own living expenses such as rent, utilities, groceries, health care, and other necessities. He also referred to their spending habits as premature affluence because many, if not most, of these individuals would not be able to sustain their discretionary expenses after their schooling once they were forced to pay for their own room and board out of their own earnings. It is one thing to have “spending money” and to develop an affluent lifestyle and expensive tastes, but it is quite another to earn enough money to sustain that lifestyle once one is responsible for the costs of living as well."

"Bachman’s graduates seemed to be experiencing what social psychologists call relative deprivation—a sense of resentment based on a belief that one is being deprived of a deserved status or an expected standard of living."

"Academic advisors can work with student affairs professionals to identify reputable resources for work- ing with student debt, particularly when students report being troubled by the consequences of poor choices they have already made...faculty in accounting or finance departments can offer financial literacy programs to their campuses as well."
  

Relation to my topic:
This article appears almost identical to the argument I've made in my essay. College students, due to psychological or other factors, tend to make unwise spending decisions that could have been prevented with the help of the university and its faculty. The idea of discretionary spending is particularly applicable to the short-term financial choices in my project. Students will spend money on things beyond their means of living, particularly because of the background they come from (premature affluence). I might use this article as extra support for my argument that students spend money in the short-term unwisely and for a variety of reasons.