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by trollbridge 670 days ago
When I worked in university administration, the quality of food, HVAC in dorms, and other luxury facilities like gyms was a top priority along with a large array of activities to keep students occupied. (The food was excellent and I indulged every few weeks, but it was also pricey on a college employee's salary.)

When my parents were in school.. their description (at an Ivy League-tier school) was of basically inedible food in the cafeteria, and the food being particularly bad on certain days, and no air conditioning (in a hot, muggy part of the south). Their other set of memories was of complete academic excellence where nearly everyone was driven to be their best at whatever they did. My dad paid for it with a job working in a steel mill during the summer. They were both first-generation college students.
1 comments
paulmd 670 days ago
this is just "99.6% of 'poors' have a refrigerator" but for college. HVAC in dorms is not what is driving up college costs, and in fact probably has become increasingly necessary because of the fossil fuels burned by your parents' generation since then.

odds are also quite good that there was substantially less "academic focus" than Father presented there as being too... college kids being drunk goofs isn't a new thing either.

just like "nobody wants to work", I'm sure these sorts of things have recirculated over millennia

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akira2501 669 days ago
> and in fact probably has become increasingly necessary because of the fossil fuels burned by your parents' generation since then.

Yet, when I tell people that climate change rhetoric creates hysteria, they refuse to acknowledge it.

> I'm sure these sorts of things have recirculated over millennia

No one in recorded human history has ever come remotely close to the standard of living that you, presumably an average person, now enjoy. It is valid to wonder what the limits of this progress might be or if the scale of benefit shows diminishing returns.

Anyways, moving the goalposts away from basic Air Conditioning, we have _literal_ theme parks[0].

[0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/colleges-with-the-craziest-wa...

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