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E-PrinceLast spring, the student body voted to redirect roughly $90,000 from the USG social budget to the Pace Center to support student service activities. The money, which would largely have been used to fund last fall’s Lawnparties concert ...(back to the article)
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What a bunch of narciscistic, entitled, arrogant priviledged kids we guys at Princeton have become, more worried about our social life than about the problems truly needy people have in the world. What happened to the tradition of Princeotn in the Nation's Service? It should be the restated as The World in the Service of Rich Brats! What the hell is going on in the admissions office here?
Every year lawnparties comes at the cost of dozens of lives that could be saved with that money. But every dollar we spend on non-essentials is a dollar we don't spend feeding the hungry and treating the sick. Anyone who rails against lawnparties yet owns an iPod is a hypocrite according to "dismayed"'s reasoning.
Our own Peter Singer has some relevant insights:
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/199704--.htm
No argument from me there, "expanding circle." But let's not editorialize in a student paper about our rights to ipods because, well, we're at a privileged place and and WE can afford them.
There is nothing moral about making sacrifices to help those who cannot provide nothing in return. To quote Ayn Rand, "I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." How incredibly immature and guilt-ridden we are, that we voted to give away our parents' hard-earned money to people who live only on government subsidies and give nothing back to society, rather than use it to benefit ourselves.
@ L
"I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Sounds like your willing to let your parents live for the sake of you, giving you money for YOUR benefit. What have you done to earn your fancy life? And to judge by your comment, it doesn't sound like you're going to do much later to justify what you've already taken from others for the benfit of yourself.
True, my parents do pay for my education. They do so because they know that, with a Princeton education, I will be able to support them when they retire and pay back the debts I have incurred. Rest assured, I am well aware of my debt to my family, and I intend to pay it back in full.
And as for your latter comment, that's a rather hateful comment which I really don't understand. Don't presume to judge that just because I believe that selfless sacrifice is a sin rather than a virtue means that I don't contribute to society.
This editorial really overlooks the nuance that went in to allocating the money. If you go the Pace Steering committee website, you will see that the funds were given to a number of different projects, representing different approaches to student service and social change. Inter-Action was merely one (albeit an important immersion) opportunity.
I guess the libertarians who troll this board take issue with redistributing the money in the first place, but please at least acknowledge the careful deliberation that went into making the funding choices.
Princeton is not allowed to make direct cash donations to charitable organizations. Also, the spirit of the referendum was to involve students in civic engagement, not just to drop a load of cash on an NGO's doorstep.
this editorial, plus the recent one glorifying bicker club pickups, has forced me to lose all respect for the prince edits board.
@L Thanks for reminding me that I really dislike Ayn Rand.
Do I think it is awful to put money towards lawnparties? No. Do I think the editorial made some sort of rational argument that it would be a better use of money? Not even close.
Have your parties. In fact, enjoy them. But please don't try to justify them as "making the money count". It's ridiculous.