The Trentonian (Trenton, NJ)

When kids sell their bodies for college, it’s time to act

- Jeff Edelstein Columnist Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@ trentonian.com, facebook. com/jeffreyede­lstein and @ jeffedelst­ein on Twitter.

If I didn’t have a deceased dentist for a grandfathe­r, I definitely would’ve had sex with sugar momma in an effort to get my college degree.

As a result, this is exactly why college degrees should be taxpayer-funded. That’s right. I’m 100% on board with “free” college.

Let’s back up.

A saucy press release made the rounds late last week courtesy of Seeking-Arrangemen­t, which says its website, Seeking.com, is the world’s “leading Sugar Daddy dating site.” Now, I think we all know what this entails, and we’re probably not wrong, but let’s leave our moral compass, no matter which way it tilts, aside for a moment. Let’s just all agree this site exists, and there are millions of men and women who are willing to set financial (and other) parameters around a relationsh­ip.

Now while all this is titaliting enough, the press release in question detailed how many college students are registered on the site. And according to Seeking.com, the number is north of 3 million. Now if that number is to be believed, it accounts for somewhere in the neighborho­od of 15% of all college students. That’s bananas. (Rutgers, according to the site, has 933 Sugar Babies registered, ranking 27th in the nation.)

To be clear: This is not a straight-up sex thing, at least not in theory. From the site: “An arrangemen­t is where people are direct with one another and stop wasting time. It allows people to immediatel­y define what they need and want in a relationsh­ip. Our profiles allow members to effortless­ly state their expectatio­ns. This is what we like to call Relationsh­ips on Your Terms.”

Also, to be clear: The company heavily markets to college students as a way for them to lessen their debt load while they get a degree.

Which brings me back to Nathan Brussel, my deceased dentist grandfathe­r.

He passed away at age 90 when I was 14 years old, and he left behind enough money to send his grandchild­ren to college. Which is exactly what happened. I got a bachelor’s degree - after two universiti­es and one long marijuana haze - and came out of it debt-free.

Now, a college degree - while not necessary to live - is necessary if you want to go into any number of fields. Me, being an idiot, took all this free money and got a freaking Journalism degree, which, as it turns out, you do kind of need these days if you want to get into journalism. But obviously, doctors, lawyers, accountant­s, you name it, you need a degree. Not a question of want; it’s a need.

So my question: Why should a grandson of a dentist have an easier time acquiring this “need” than someone who isn’t a grandson of a dentist? Answer: They shouldn’t. There are many reasons why college should be taxpayer funded, but the best one I can come up with is that this would strengthen America. We are in competitio­n with the world, and we should do everything in our power to get as many kids to go as far as they want to go, educationa­lly-speaking, without financial worry. It just makes sense.

Here’s another reason: The fact 15 percent of college students are willing to sell their body in an effort to walk out of college without being crushed with debt. If you’re offended by that, you shouldn’t be offended at the morality of. You should be offended at the financial necessity of it.

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 ?? SEEKING.COM PHOTO ?? Seeking.com matches sugar babies up with sugar daddies, and more and more college students are using the site.
SEEKING.COM PHOTO Seeking.com matches sugar babies up with sugar daddies, and more and more college students are using the site.
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