Reply to How Princeton is Getting Around the Endowment Tax

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Seems like a win for everyone!
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Seems like it makes the endowment tax arbitrary stupid nonsense.  Don't tax Princeton but tax MIT.  Don't text Amherst or NYU but tax Notre Dame.  This whole thing just seems pointless.[/quote]

It is a Pigovian tax. It wasn’t intended to raise revenue. This is an optimal outcome, perhaps even an intended one. [/quote]

It’s kind of crappy to be a family who makes just a tad over the line (or who have more than typical assets) who will pay full price while others just a tiny bit under the line pay none. I get the rationale but it’s not optimal from that perspective. [/quote]

Totally agree - this system is very binary - all or nothing. There will be a lot of gamesmanship among families to get below the line - ironically people will have an incentive to take a pay cut for a few years. It makes very little sense yet given the constraints Princeton is dealing with, I don't blame them. But as one who is not far over the line and also had the audacity to live somewhat conservatively and save money for college, it is frustrating. But life isn't fair - I'm fortunate to have more than most other Americans and college is not a God-given right.[/quote]

Plus don't pretend that your approach to money and saving isn't helping you out in other ways. You might not be getting a college break, but there are so many other benefits you get by living this way.[/quote]

NP. Like what? We have a single car, don’t do vacations at all beyond drive to the beach and stay in a motel type of thing or camping, shop at Walmart for clothes, literally never eat out, we do spend more money than most people on food because our kids have severe food allergies and we need to. We have other therapies for special needs but basically just a typical middle class lifestyle plus some extra frugality compared to most people, and yet we just miss out on all financial aid. No family money at all (we were first gen), actually we support our parents a little if anything. Our kids are very high stats and so could definitely get some merit at some places but it’s frustrating that ivys are out for them because we really can’t afford it. If we lived irresponsibly and didn’t work so hard, they would get financial aid. The system sucks.[/quote]

So apparently you have figured out how to have some of the things you want plus get financial aid but you refuse to do it?  Maybe the system doesn't suck. Maybe you just aren't understanding how to benefit from the system?

And if you don't want to  shop at Walmart like most people so that your kid can get a Princeton education, then dont.  No one is forcing you to do that.  The system sucks because you you have to shop at lower price stores like most people instead of expensive stores?   [/quote]

You are a total insincere jerk. This person was very frank and honest and is trying to be fiscally responsible and you jump all over them. Can you respond in a kind, thoughtful way? What happened to intelligent conflict and discourse?

The low class trash who have no hopes of having their children ever attend a place like Princeton really stand out here. But I'm sure they will argue they didn't want Princeton anyway.

And thank you to the poster who this jerk was responding to. That was a very interesting, meaningful post that demonstrates what a lot of people are dealing with. And as the other poster who is being wrongfully demonized noted, no one is saying woe is me or that they would trade their lives with a homeless person. They are just saying that the system could use fixing. Is that so wrong?[/quote]

The poster is entitled to their opinion that people that are crying about having to shop at Walmart to afford Princeton are totally in a bubble.   You want Princeton to give more aid to your family so that you don't have to shop at Walmart?  Do you know how entitled and ridiculous that sounds?  If a poster is of the opinion that that indicates you live in a bubble, then that is that poster's opinion.  It is no less valid than yours.[/quote]

Once again ignoring the point. It can be said in a more kind, adult way. Everyone here needs to show how clever and snarky they can be. No one can have adult disagreements.[/quote]

You're ignoring the point.  The system is getting better, not worse.  There were zero women at Princeton in my lifetime.   So  large groups of excluded people are getting more access to that kind of high quality education then used to be the case.  I think that's a better system, not a worse system. Is it perfect? No but it's getting better.[/quote]

Apples and oranges. No one is saying that some things aren't better (at least no one with a brain). But there is still room for improvement.[/quote]

I don't think I'm missing anything.  There was a poster that doesn't like the aid formula used by Princeton because they feel it requires sacrifices on the part of that family to send their child to Princeton.  So I'm interpreting that to mean that they want the aid formula changed so it lessens their sacrifice of not being able to eat out in restaurants and having to shop at cheap stores.  That is what was posted.

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What they are saying is that it is "unfair" that if two families have identical income streams and one spends most of their money on cars, vacations, jewelry, clams on the half shell, roller skates, or whatever else and the other lives more conservatively and puts the money away to save for college, the one that spent the money will get more financial aid than the one that saved. So the financial aid system in some ways is discouraging savings, which one should think is a social good that should be encouraged (within reason - if people saved 100% and spent nothing, that would not be good either).[/quote]

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