No, I’m not talking about moving home with your parents, which I fully support. The New York Times recently published an article about the current trend of parents purchasing shiny new NYC apartments for their kids as a graduation present. Forget a new dress for the ceremony, some apartment supplies or maybe even plane tickets to Europe, these parents are dropping $1.15 million on a condo to send their kiddies off into the real world.

The article cited a variety of reasons why the parents thought that this “present” was appropriate. My personal favorite was, “it was a way for us financially to give them money without having to die.” Well, that’s a bit much.

But regardless, it got me thinking. Just because some parents can afford such a luxurious gift (to think I had my fingers crossed for some new baking pans…) does that make it appropriate? Is buying a brand spankin’ new pad really going to help grads get on their feet, pinch pennies and save up for their own place one day? Not having to worry about cramming three people into a tiny apartment and paying an outlandish amount of rent does sound pretty awesome…

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Recently, I read an article that centered on a Harvard professor’s anger after a recent grad whom he taught (Jared Kushner, the son of realllly powerful real estate developer) went out and bought the New York Observer — and then slashed the paychecks of the Observer’s freelancers, one of whom was the Harvard professor himself. The professor was pissed that Kushner, who most likely gave him attitude in the classroom, had the money and the audacity to do something that monumental, while the professor was making around $15,500 a year.

“When intellectuals act as clerks and students act as clients, how do college teachers differ from corporate accountants?” the professor angrily writes. “…the sedulous banality of the rich degrades teaching into a service-class preoccupation whose chief duty is preparing clients for monied careers.”

Big words (I mean, he teaches at Harvard. I think it’s a prerequisite), but what the guy is basically saying that rich students make him feel like he’s not doing anything except helping them learn how to grow up and screw the little guys. Rich kids make this guy feel like he’s nothing more than a stepping stone toward big conglomerate world domination.

He’s sort of got a point, but it’s a moot one, because…I mean…duh.

A lot of insanely rich kids grow up believing most of the human race is there to serve them. I attended undergrad at a private liberal arts college where Gucci purses and Prada shoes were perfectly in place at 8:30 in the morning, and you better believe there were some kids with major attitude in class. A degree was something they simply had to tolerate before Daddy or Mommy or Uncle Dearest would set them up in some prime position at whatever giant company their family owned. Read More »