> The gaming doesn’t stop at disability. Stanford requires undergrads to purchase an $7,944 annual meal plan—unless they claim a religious dietary restriction the cafeteria can’t accommodate.
Isn’t the mandatory meal plan also a game by the university? A really frustrating trend I’ve seen more companies do nowadays is to tack on mandatory charges for crap that I don’t need or want, and it’s happening everywhere.
If declaring a disability is what it takes to get out of a compulsory meal charge, then it’s worth examining why the school feels compelled to make the meal plan mandatory in the first place.
It’s not just students or consumers playing a game, companies (or universities in this case) are playing one too, and it’s called: how to get as much money out of our customers as possible.
To be clear, the evidence here is that one student tweeted and that many more Stanford students have a registered disability (which doesn't not even mean that they are receiving accommodations) than students at community colleges.
For me to buy this moral panic I need to see more compelling evidence. Can we see the students that clearly are getting undeserved accommodations? That is the actual thing people are worried about. But zero of the articles whinging about this can point to data here.
Could it be, I dunno, that rich students are vastly more likely to have access to the medical system that can identify and document various things like ADHD?
Having registered disability is not the same as getting generous accommodations. The article has no data on accommodations themselves. At best, it has a few anecdotes about rooms allocations.
I am totally fine with people avoiding expensive or bad meal plan. The fact that you have to pay for an expensive or bad meal plan should be the scandal, not the fact that students avoid it.
And I am even fine with accommodation from class participation. Too much of it is activity for points only which wastes everybody's time.
I agree the US is trending towards third-world mentalities. Statistics aren't good. >50% of Americans now see homeownership as out of reach. Studies keep cropping up stating at 30-40% of young Americans will never marry. Never mind that many people need to pass 5-10 rounds of interviews to get a junior level role.
This all seems to stem from one demographics greed or another. Our parents generation and suppressing housing builds. The corporations using monopolies of dating applications which at this point seem to be suppressing relationship formulation more than increasing it. The political classes using tariffs for unclear purposes to shrink our economy.
Exactly. It's terrible to frame the "third-worldification" based on how the consumer (or student) behaves in this case. It's only "cheating" when consumers act in their own self interest, but not when a powerful university like Stanford puts a mandatory meal plan in place.
Institutions are always permitted to act in the own self-interest, but not individuals. Always just blame the little people.
Awesome article. Please read the entire thing. Gary takes a well-deserved shot at the US false use of "third‑worldification" as a stand in for "our own low-trust society".
This crap will only stop when there is:
1. A ton of new housing for all people.
2. Treat everyone the same. Same amount of test time etc.
Otherwise, our society is just a race to see who can claim the most special 'privilege' via some form of 'issue' or 'need'.
It would be great to see detailed demographic breakdowns of exactly who's making these heavy special-privilege claims, as the details may surprise a variety of commentators on this forum. Though I don't think Gary has access to that data.
> When the system rewards cheating, the rational choice is to cheat—or be disadvantaged.
Doesn't the current president of the U.S. and indeed his posse sorta of espouse this when you look at their backgrounds? This feels like a bigger cultural issue around what the advantaged folks have been doing all along
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 45.8 ms ] threadIsn’t the mandatory meal plan also a game by the university? A really frustrating trend I’ve seen more companies do nowadays is to tack on mandatory charges for crap that I don’t need or want, and it’s happening everywhere.
If declaring a disability is what it takes to get out of a compulsory meal charge, then it’s worth examining why the school feels compelled to make the meal plan mandatory in the first place.
It’s not just students or consumers playing a game, companies (or universities in this case) are playing one too, and it’s called: how to get as much money out of our customers as possible.
Quite a while ago, but yes.
1. There are cheaper options
2. There are healthier options
3. No offense, but American food is often low quality.
Man. If I think of Fudan University food, then I want to cry. So good.
Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46150715
Accomodation Nation
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-universit...
For me to buy this moral panic I need to see more compelling evidence. Can we see the students that clearly are getting undeserved accommodations? That is the actual thing people are worried about. But zero of the articles whinging about this can point to data here.
Could it be, I dunno, that rich students are vastly more likely to have access to the medical system that can identify and document various things like ADHD?
I am totally fine with people avoiding expensive or bad meal plan. The fact that you have to pay for an expensive or bad meal plan should be the scandal, not the fact that students avoid it.
And I am even fine with accommodation from class participation. Too much of it is activity for points only which wastes everybody's time.
This all seems to stem from one demographics greed or another. Our parents generation and suppressing housing builds. The corporations using monopolies of dating applications which at this point seem to be suppressing relationship formulation more than increasing it. The political classes using tariffs for unclear purposes to shrink our economy.
https://www.equimundo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/State-o...
Institutions are always permitted to act in the own self-interest, but not individuals. Always just blame the little people.
I am back in the US. And it is not looking good. Don't put all the eggs in one basket.
This crap will only stop when there is: 1. A ton of new housing for all people. 2. Treat everyone the same. Same amount of test time etc.
Otherwise, our society is just a race to see who can claim the most special 'privilege' via some form of 'issue' or 'need'.
It would be great to see detailed demographic breakdowns of exactly who's making these heavy special-privilege claims, as the details may surprise a variety of commentators on this forum. Though I don't think Gary has access to that data.
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Doesn't the current president of the U.S. and indeed his posse sorta of espouse this when you look at their backgrounds? This feels like a bigger cultural issue around what the advantaged folks have been doing all along