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Gao Lu, commentator of Chao News Client

Image source: Visual China

"4,000 yuan for the driver's license test, 6,000 yuan for a mobile phone, 8,000 yuan for a graduation trip, 20,000 yuan for femtosecond surgery for myopia, 2,000 yuan for clothes and shoes, and 8,000 yuan for a laptop, totaling 48,000 yuan." Recently, some parents posted their "post-college entrance examination bills" on social media, which are the summer expenses that parents pay for their children who are about to go to college.

This bill is not easy to deal with, and this is only part of it. In some bills, girls may have to pay for skin care products and makeup, and boys may have to pay for sports equipment. It can be said that in order to go to college and study in a good university, the family has been under tremendous financial pressure.

Some of these expenses are reasonable. For example, mobile phones are tools for learning and living, and they are the link between individuals and society, so they are naturally indispensable. Computers, which present a large amount of information in electronic form, are also indispensable for learning and living. Many of the expenses in the "post-college entrance examination bill" are equivalent to the one-time consumption required for four years of college. They seem high, but when spread out, they are also normal. Society also needs to react rationally, and not get excited when seeing tens of thousands of figures, and easily label them as extravagant and wasteful.

Of course, some expenses are not justified. For example, how useful are electronic devices like tablets when mobile phones are becoming more and more powerful and laptops are already available? And the driver's license is not necessarily a good time to learn to drive in college because there are not many opportunities to drive, and driving is something that requires constant practice and practice makes perfect. It is not too late to get a driver's license when you have a job and need to buy a car to travel.

Whether it is necessary to have high-priced products is worth discussing. A mobile phone of 6,000 or 7,000 yuan is expensive, so can we buy a cheaper one? Electronic products are often expensive because they are new. Keeping up with the trend and chasing the latest products will naturally cost a lot of money. But in terms of functions, in fact, mid-priced mobile phones are enough to meet the daily needs of college students. There is no need to pay for those flashy functions, and there is no need to pay too high a price for a little performance improvement. Some families are also persistent in their pursuit of a specific brand. They will not buy any other three-piece, four-piece, or five-piece sets. They are very impressive and can get everything done in one go.

There is a hint of face-saving here. It seems that if you use other brands, you will lose face and show that your family is not strong enough. You try to make your children look good, fearing that they will lose out in comparison and hurt their self-esteem. This kind of thinking is unacceptable. Comparison is like a bottomless pit. Once it starts, it is difficult to end. If you start comparing at the beginning of the school year, what will you do in the future? Will you continue to compare? Every family has different circumstances and economic strength. Sometimes, even if you give everything, you may not be able to beat others. Will you follow or not? This will undoubtedly boost the vanity of college students.

University is a place for learning, not a place for superficial projects. All expenses should be focused on learning and living needs, and practicality should be the principle. Spend what you should spend, and spend within your means. Too high-end equipment and too advanced consumption will open the door for children to play games and indulge in the Internet. This is by no means alarmist, but the most important thing that parents should seriously deal with in new universities.

What is more important is to let children understand that making money is not easy. If parents prepare everything for them, children will only develop a dependent mentality, which is not conducive to cultivating their independent personality.

The "post-college entrance examination bill" has intensified society's concerns about the cost of education, which cannot but attract social attention. If it is not properly dealt with, it will not be conducive to the construction of an education-friendly environment. Parents and society should stand up and oppose excessive consumption, free the consumption of the school season from the trend of comparison, and return to rationality.

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