Maybe all the poor shnooks who are careful with money and spend within their means are the only ones who hang out in the YWN coffee room. My personal observations of the levels of materialism in the yeshiva world say otherwise. Count the number of pesach hotel programs during a normal year, the number of frum families flying to Florida in January, to EY for sukkos, new construction in Lakewood, Monsey, 5 towns, the price of houses in these areas and Brooklyn, percentage of BY high graduates attending seminary in EY, excessive spending on frivolities in simchos etc. etc.
Some of these are due to social pressures, desires for luxuries but I think most people would agree that the level of gashmius in America has increased manifold to a point that it is not sustainable. To ask the struggling yeshivos to suffer for that is not right.
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