'I have to grow up. I have to incorporate what I want and what I can have.'
The perfect contrast with yesterday's story about the "Occupy" protester who handcuffed himself into a barrel with no plan on how he would eventually unhandcuff himself.
This quote comes from 18 year-old Daniel Schwartz, who chose to attend City University of New York's Macaulay Honors College over Cornell University, because he couldn't justify spending $50,000 a year for a bachelor's degree.
Mr. Schwartz started at the Macaulay Honors program at Queens College this fall with "nagging" disappointment but has come to terms with his decision.Economists call this scarcity. Scarcity is the "basic economic problem that arises because people have unlimited wants but resources are limited. Because of scarcity, various economic decisions must be made to allocate resources efficiently."
"I have to grow up. I have to incorporate what I want and what I can have," he says. "Even though people say money shouldn't be everything, in this situation, money was the most important thing."
He says he had grown enamored with the "prestige" of an Ivy League degree. His teachers cited the networking opportunities and academic rigor. It didn't help that his father attended Princeton University and his uncle, Columbia University.
"I thought that the Ivy League title would really, really boost my chances of getting into a good med school," Mr. Schwartz says. Now, he is aiming for top grades at Macaulay to remain competitive with Ivy League candidates.
In real life, recognizing this and reacting accordingly is a sign of maturity and, well, adulthood. Congrats to Schwartz for making a mature decision. It certainly bodes well for his future and offers a powerful contrast to those "Occupiers" demanding the government bail them out for their own poor decisions.
