"As making money moved front and center, young people stopped caring about other things. In the late 1960s, believe it or not, the most important goal of college freshman was 'developing a meaningful philosophy of life,' cited by over 80 percent of entering students. The centrality of this goal waned steadily over the next twenty years, reaching an all-time low of 39 percent in 1987, at the height of the '80s boom." (116)

The author has tried to explain how individualism has led to the hippie culture which promoted the freedom of expression and choice, which then got corrupted into laissez-faire economics and having a free, unfettered market. The author backs up all these claims in his historical narrative with statistics from polls, and he relies heavily on logos to get his point across. Here, Callahan uses polling data to argue that college students reflect the changing culture, and they have lost their desire for critical thinking, and instead see college as a way to advance their own career goals.