Romney: College students should borrow from their parents and start a business

[renate]

14. you know, I just had an idea about what Mitt and Ann might think about their days as poor students

Let's say for the sake of argument that they really did live on very little money--whether that's their idea of very little money or by any objective measure. Maybe they really did live like most other students do, with that door for a desk and those carpet remnants on the floor. Let's say they had to watch their pennies, even if those pennies came from stock--they still didn't spend a lot.

Okay, fine, we'll grant you that, Mitt and Ann. But the real difference--and I'm not casting stones, I went to school at a time when tuition was cheap and my parents had steady employment so I knew I wouldn't have to drop out or starve--is that he had a safety net. It's almost fun to be young and in love and making do if you know it's not a permanent situation and if you know that it won't all fall apart at any moment with a bill for a car repair or an increase in the rent or a sick kid.

But he doesn't know that there's a difference. It's like sleeping on the street so you can see what it's like, knowing that you'll be snug and dry the next night and that you can even go home tonight if it's too difficult, versus sleeping on the street because you have no choice. They look the same, but they're very different.

So he and Ann really believe, bless their hearts, that they know what it's like to be poor. But they actually only know what it's like to not spend a lot of money for a while. Big difference.