Quickly, someone in State College, please go and help Erica Townsend ("Downtown eateries' prices too expensive for students," March 29) because someone is clearly pointing a gun to her head and forcing her to spend her disposable income against her will. Ms. Townsend, and sadly many other members of the "entitlement generation" must be too busy being outraged by the price-gougers in relatively consumer-friendly central Pennsylvania (good luck moving to anywhere else) to have grasped that dining out is not a personal right. It is a privilege and not one that everyone can take advantage of. There are plenty of people who can't scrape together enough money to make it to the store to buy basic nutritional necessities. But please, by all means, whine about how expensive it is to dine out for every meal. The application of simple common sense apparently isn't enough to lead the writer to the conclusion that all goods and services are less expensive if made or done for oneself rather than seeking someone else to do it. For the past several hundred years, we have existed in a free market system, whereby the proprietors of a business can charge whatever they like. Skip the cereal and go buy yourself a clue (just don't get it at McLanahan's -- everyone knows they charge too much).