The-Ave.US

from rhp6033 at HorsesAss

Last week I visited the doctor’s office. … Since I wasn’t particularly interested in Field & Stream, Golf, or Ladies Home Journal, I picked up the large-print edition of the May 2011 issue of Readers Digest, and opened it up to a randam page.

What I found was an extremely interesting article by someone who works at writing papers for college students. He didn’t apologize for the ethics of his profession, he simply explained how the business worked, the types of students requesting the papers, the fees that were charged, and the types of papers he wrote. It turns out he writes just about everything, from two-page reports to master’s thesis, on just about every subject under the sun. An average paper might cost $1,500 to $2,000, and he can usually do it in a week or so (while working on other projects as well). He makes about $60K a year, splitting the fees with the referral service.

Among the things which stood out to me was his short description of the types of students who used his service: (a) the foreign student who had difficulty with the English language; (b) the “lazy rich”, and (c) the “incurably deficient”.

He goes into more detail to describe the “lazy rich”. He points out that not every rich person is lazy, but also that not every rich person is smart or industrious. But what sets the rich people apart in college is that college is particularly well-suited for ensuring their success in life.

Because for someone who is not rich, they may work very hard and get good grades, and think that this will ensure them success in life. This is a false lesson – learning a work ethic might help them in life, but it hardly ensures success. Luck, contacts, and family wealth have far more to do with eventual professional success than does hard work.

What the “lazy rich” learn, however, is exactly what they need to know to get ahead. They learn how to use their money to get other people to do their work for them. Then they spend their free time solidifying their social and future business contacts in fraternity activities, College Republican meetings, etc.

Of course, this is a paraphrase from my memory, I checked the Readers Digest website and I wasn’t able to find the article itself. But it sure rings true.