(Sore) Back to School

Well, the kids are back in school, sore backs and all.
Their book bags are so jammed with material — much of it probably never even removed at home — that the children are all hunched over. I predict back problems in later years.
But it’s no longer just book bags.
Don’t forget the laptop.
Back-to-school shoppers looked particularly stressed this year, trying to match their children’s requests with available funds.
Maybe they took seriously the direct mail advertisement from Hewitt Packard that said: “Stop resisting. Give in to what your kids really want.”
And, “You will buy it for your kids and become the cool parent on the block.”
And, “Repeat three times: I want what’s best for my kid.”
I guess the cool parent will get the Notebook PC for $1,030 and add Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition plus a wireless mouse and a TV tuner and remote for a total of $1,320.
These kids are not only smarter than we were but more skilled at manipulating mom and dad.
My advice: Also get the three-year accidental damage protection for $350.

NOTE: During the spring and summer, I commented several times here on corruption in the college-student loan industry in which colleges and/or their officials received various forms of compensation (kickbacks) from lenders for pushing their companies.
The Press of Atlantic City joined in Sunday, Sept. 9, with an editorial welcoming a code of ethics issued by this state’s attorney general, but a call for “real solutions...at the federal level.”