tight with pants but not $$$

is the poor student an endangered species? time-poor they may be, but certainly not economically poor, judging by the arrays of fancy cars, long lines at the coffee shops and the bar, not to mention the ever-changing fashion trends making trails around the place (even down at the traditionally nerdy end of campus!). oh why are tight black jeans back in fashion for men?! i'm not sure that tight pants are good for anyone's health.

pants aside, i wonder at how increasingly affluent students are changing the tertiary education landscape and student community. laptops, mobile phones, lattes, and bug-eye sunglasses (corey worthington you have a lot to answer to!) are a staple for incoming students. has high school mentality seeped into the tertiary world? and how limited are the days of the struggling student, working two jobs whilst juggling textbooks and painting passionate placards for anti-war protests? perhaps the negative correlation between student affluence (read: apathy) and student activism is monotonically increasing. or is there a generation gap and ideology shift that, in my failure to understand either, simply shows my age and itch to change scenery...