I just got my NewEgg advertisement today.

NewEgg sells electronics, computer parts, etc.

Apparently, college kids need various things in their dorm:

X-box and games
Media streaming device
$300 gamer's video card
$300 subwoofer to thump the whole dorm building

...is this why children "cost so much money"?

Granted, some of the items were more acceptable, but even many of those weren't necessary.

I think it's ridiculous to promote GAMES and TV for those who are supposed to be STUDYING. It's as if they're going on vacation or to a party, rather than to a house of higher education.

And don't tell me that TV/gaming is great recreation. I would dispute that, but even if you were right it's still not appropriate to spend hundreds of dollars on that category, implying it's more important than study (which only requires a $320 laptop -- in the same ad). Why not use an old TV you bring with you, or buy locally?  Why not bring whatever games you already happen to have?

These kids are going into debt for college and have no sense of realism or responsibility. They get disillusioned when they don't instantly get a job after college, or they realize they are deep in debt, often with dismal job prospects.

If they had spent that $300 toward college instead of getting a $300 video card, they would have owed that much less.

It's just one more way that materialism has permeated our society. Ready for college? Buy lots of fun stuff. Christmas? Time to buy stuff. Other holiday? Buy stuff.

No wonder Americans, on average, owe $10,000 on their credit cards. Why many haven't saved anything for retirement, why many have ZERO net worth after working for years, etc.

Indeed, the advertising has become so pervasive, one can hardly escape it. There were even screens (I suppose it was some kind of computer, but I don't really know) at the filling station, which would bombard customers with advertisements as they filled the tank. That at least has ceased, thankfully. Since the public is generally in an electronically mesmerised state, they ought to dispense with the bright colours & subliminal messages & so forth, & simply shout what they really mean, which is "buy this stupid goy!!!!, buy it NOW, stupid goy!!!!!"

 It's astonishing that anyone, even a millionaire, would be so profligate as to waste $300 on a video game. These people have, for all intents & purposes become the Eloi of H.G. Wells's 'The Time Machine', right down to the giggling at anything & everything. They live only to gratify themselves, & since they never make use of their reason, it begins to atrophy & they become ever more like unto the beasts.

 If there were some great cataclysm tomorrow, & the modern technological pseudo-civilisation were to be destroyed, the few survivors would live lives like those of the Australian aborigines, or the savages in the Congo.