(Zhongjing comments on Beijing) College students are a new force in contemporary society and a special group full of vitality. They are not only one of the subjects of current consumption, but also the guiders of future consumption trends. At present, most of college students' financial resources come from their parents, and their economic independence is poor. Most of them live independently from home for the first time, and their self-control ability is not strong. Therefore, in the current economic environment, it is particularly important to pay attention to the consumption of college students, especially to cultivate and guide them to form a scientific, rational, civilized and responsible consumption concept.
First, the meaning and significance of rational consumption of college students
As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the sage Confucius once said: "Luxury is not as good as sun; It is better to be solid than to have no grandchildren (The Analects of Confucius). That is to say, in the choice between "luxury" and "frugality", Confucius tends to be "frugal", or opposes the extravagant and flashy lifestyle and advocates a frugal and simple lifestyle, but does not approve of being too frugal. Adhering to the concept of moderate consumption and rational consumption is an excellent cultural tradition in China, which is still of positive significance to guiding college students' rational consumption at present. From the point of view of economics, rational consumption usually refers to "consumer's behavior of pursuing maximum utility and satisfaction by strictly observing marginal utility theory and carefully allocating their own resources". The rational consumption of college students is a consumption pattern in which college students, as a special group, adhere to the fine tradition of hard work, simplicity, diligence and thrift in the process of consuming material and spiritual products according to their own economic conditions, do not rely on any inertia or psychological factors, do not form blind behaviors such as comparing consumption, can accurately recognize and predict the consumption process, and the consumption level adapts to the national economic situation, thus achieving value for money.
Rational consumption of college students is of great significance to the development of national economy, the inheritance of national culture, the improvement of the effectiveness of college students' ideological education and the improvement of their own quality.
First, the rational consumption of college students will affect the development direction of future consumption. As the masters of the future society, college students will play an important role in the road of national rejuvenation and national prosperity. As social elites, they will be active in all fields of national economic construction and play an important role. They not only have strong spending power, but also are important subjects of social consumption in the future. At the same time, their consumption characteristics also play an important guiding role in the future development of social production, enterprise management and changes in the consumer market. Therefore, whether college students can consume rationally will have an impact on the healthy development of the country's future economy.
Second, the rational consumption of college students is related to the inheritance and development of China's traditional virtues. "It is difficult to think about a porridge and a meal, and it is difficult to think about it all the time." The prosperity of a nation depends on the spirit of hard struggle and self-improvement. "Quiet to cultivate one's morality, frugality to cultivate one's morality", frugality has always been the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. As the pillars of the country, college students must not covet enjoyment. They need to constantly create wealth, adhere to scientific and rational consumption, inherit and carry forward the excellent national cultural traditions of thrift and hard work, and make due contributions to the sustainable development of China's economy.
Third, the rational consumption of college students may also affect the consumption fashion of society. As a young consumer group, college students' consumption concept, consumption situation and consumption pattern not only affect their personal life satisfaction and happiness, but also affect the living standard of their families, and also let their peers learn and follow suit, thus affecting the trend of consumption. Therefore, when college students consume, they need to think seriously, actively improve the consumption structure, oppose bad consumption habits such as extravagance and waste, blindly compare with others, advocate scientific and rational consumption concepts, and lead a healthy and harmonious consumption fashion.
Second, the irrational consumption of some college students.
In order to truly understand the current situation of college students' consumption, focus on the current situation of college students' consumption concepts and behaviors, and better enhance the pertinence of college students' ideological education, we organized a random sampling questionnaire survey of college students' consumption in our school. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed, 400 questionnaires were recovered, and 385 questionnaires were valid, with a recovery rate of 100% and an effective recovery rate of 96%. The sample characteristics of the respondents are: male students account for 58%, rural registered college students account for 57%, and the proportions of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors are 28%, 25%, 26% and 2 1% respectively.
Through the statistical analysis of the questionnaire, it can be seen from the statistical analysis results that the vast majority of students' consumption is rational, they have a strong sense of social responsibility and family responsibility, can adhere to the tradition of hard work and plain living, maintain frugal habits, have healthy and reasonable consumption concepts and behaviors, and can achieve moderate consumption. However, the survey also found that a few students still have some unreasonable consumption phenomena, mainly in the following aspects:
1. blind consumption, lack of scientific and reasonable consumption concept
Some people tend to keep up with the joneses in consumption. The survey shows that some people have obvious brand preference, and to some extent, they have the psychology of comparing with others and vanity. Among the college students surveyed, 30% have 1-3 middle and high-grade brand-name products, 59% have 3-5, and none of them only account for 1 1%. When asked about "the motivation to buy famous brands", 34% of college students choose "other students have it, I want it", 57% choose "to show their own taste and reflect the gap with others", and only 9% choose "the quality of famous brands is good". In the survey, a few students showed that in order to own a mobile phone or change into the most popular mobile phone, some students are willing to scrimp and even sacrifice other necessary expenses; Some female students borrow money from their classmates to satisfy their desire for a set of brand-name cosmetics or a piece of fashion, which reflects that some students' consumption behavior is not affected by vanity, and vanity drive is easy to cause psychological upgrading of consumption comparison.
Some people have a tendency to spend without a plan. With the popularity of online shopping, TV shopping and other fashion consumption patterns, as well as various bank credit cards and consumption cards entering the university campus, more and more college students have gradually become "online shoppers" and "Kaka people", and "spending tomorrow's money to do today's things" has become the fashion pursued by some young people. Some students are not only "moonlight clan", but even advance the living expenses for the next few months in advance, so it is impossible to arrange the living expenses reasonably. When the living expenses are not enough, ask for money from home in various names. Yes, "Do you usually borrow money from others?" When investigating this problem, it was found that 82% of students chose "sometimes", indicating that most college students are in a state of economic tension, which is largely due to the phenomenon that consumption planning is not strong and consumption is ahead of schedule.
Some people have a tendency to enjoy consumption. The survey results show that some people have weak economic consciousness and pursue pleasure, especially in interpersonal communication. In the survey, only 100 yuan,/kloc-0 150 yuan, 55. 1% of college students spend more than150 yuan. When college students fall in love and make friends, on important festivals or each other's birthdays, 57% students will invite roommates or friends to dinner, 36% students will choose to give gifts, and 7% students will choose to order songs to send blessings. The survey also found that "interpersonal relationship investment" is popular on university campuses, whether it's birthday, being elected as a student cadre, winning prizes in competitions, winning scholarships, etc. Otherwise it will be regarded as "tasteless" and lack of friendship. Whether friends come or classmates get together, it is inevitable to invite people to dinner or give gifts. This kind of interpersonal relationship investment has become commonplace in university campuses. In fact, many of them are unnecessary.
2. Poor economic independence and weak sense of economic independence. Contemporary college students are used to relying on their parents. At present, college students' living expenses mainly come from their parents, and other sources are rewards and scholarships obtained from social part-time jobs. When asked about the purpose of taking a part-time job, 49% of college students choose to gain social experience, 24% choose to make up for the lack of personal living expenses, and only 17% choose to reduce the family burden and long for independence. It can be seen that the purpose of doing part-time jobs is to increase one's knowledge and social experience, not for economic considerations. Because most students' living expenses come from their parents, their living expenses income is relatively fixed, which makes them form a kind of dependence psychology. They often don't have much scruples when spending, and they are economically passive after "overdraft".
3. Weak financial awareness and lack of financial skills.
In the survey, some students lack effective control and planning of daily consumption and often borrow money from others. When investigating whether their monthly living expenses can meet the demand, 3 1% students chose "reluctantly" and 5% students chose "not enough". When investigating "How is your consumption after one semester", 3 1% students chose "exceeding the plan". In the survey of "whether there is a plan for every purchase", it was found that 55.8% of the students chose "none" and "unclear". 72% of the students chose "No" or "No" when investigating "Do you have bookkeeping habits at ordinary times". When investigating how to deal with the extra monthly living expenses, 46% students choose to spend it next month, 20% students choose to buy books, 65,438+08% students choose to buy daily necessities, and only 65,438+065,438+0% students choose to save it and make other plans. It can be seen that some students are weak in financial awareness, financial skills, and daily consumption planning, and their consumption shows certain irrationality.
Third, some suggestions to guide the rational consumption of college students.
The unreasonable consumption pattern of college students is undoubtedly unfavorable to their growth, family and society. In view of the irrational consumption of the above-mentioned minority of college students, we believe that we can make efforts on how to guide the rational consumption of college students from the following aspects:
1. Strengthen the education of college students' rational consumption concept.
As the younger generation, we must develop correct consumption habits and normal consumption patterns to meet the needs of today's social and economic activities. To cultivate a scientific and rational consumption view, we need to grasp the "degree" of consumption, understand the significance of rational consumption to individuals, families, schools and society, and avoid comparing consumption psychology and hedonic consumption tendency, so as to establish a correct and scientific rational consumption view that adapts to the trend of the times.
Parents should urge their children to develop a rational concept of consumption. Family consumption concepts and behaviors have a profound impact on children's consumption behaviors. Parents should keep abreast of their children's consumption, help their children develop good consumption habits, and effectively monitor and manage their consumption.
Schools should strengthen educational guidance and bring rational consumption of college students into ideological and political education in colleges and universities. In the process of cultivating college students' rational consumption concept, we should give full play to the effective role of ideological and political education carriers such as college student counselors, student party branches and league organizations, and make full use of school mass media such as campus network, radio and television stations, school newspapers, group news and special columns to conduct intuitive and vivid consumption education, guide rational consumption public opinion, and actively create a campus atmosphere of healthy consumption and reasonable consumption.
2. Strengthen the cultivation of college students' awareness and ability of economic independence.
On the one hand, parents should change "selfless dedication" to "moderate supply" in the economic supply for students, and parents should make clear their children's consumption concepts and attitudes: they should support all reasonable expenses necessary for children's study and life as much as possible, even if there is more money; All irrational consumption, even if there is less money, should be strictly controlled. At the same time, I teach children the behavior of "managing the family diligently", so that children can understand that it is not easy for their parents to earn money, get rid of dependence psychology, and enhance students' sense of family responsibility and social responsibility.
On the other hand, schools should provide more work-study programs and opportunities for college students, so that they can not only increase their social experience, but also reduce the financial burden on their families to a certain extent and earn their own living. Only by cultivating their talents can college students enhance their economic independence and improve their consumption level.
3. Strengthen the level of consumer knowledge education
Colleges and universities should offer consumer finance education courses or lectures such as "consumer economics" and "personal financial management" so that students can understand the basic knowledge of consumption and financial management, know how to consume rationally, learn to consume scientifically and civilized, guide students to consume consciously and rationally, and put an end to all irrational consumption behaviors.
4. Work together to guide college students to establish a correct concept of rational consumption.
The maturity of college students' consumption concept is an important part of their adulthood and success, which is mainly manifested in whether they can consume rationally. It is suggested that education management should be the main body, and society, families and students should actively participate to build a reasonable consumer guide and education system for college students. Colleges and universities should play a major role in helping college students establish a rational consumption concept and cultivate a scientific consumption concept; The government should actively advocate the social environment atmosphere of rational consumption; Parents should adhere to scientific education, guide and supervise children's rational consumption; College students themselves should enhance their sense of independence, be brave in assuming social and family responsibilities, establish a healthy and reasonable consumption concept, and adhere to sustainable consumption, moderate consumption and rational consumption. Through multi-pronged, all-round coordination and full cooperation, * * * will cultivate college students to establish a correct concept of rational consumption.
4. How to realize rational consumption
(1) According to the consumption demand structure, that is, according to the order of survival demand, development demand and enjoyment demand, consider the consumption expenditure of residents.
(2) consumption should be done according to one's ability.
(3) Consumption should be carefully calculated and pay attention to efficiency, including not only money account, time account and energy account, but also the utility of consuming each product.
(4) Consumption should be timely. In consumption, we should pay attention to the changes in consumption concepts and habits, and try to avoid wasting money on "outdated" or about to become outdated consumer goods.