Being a student doesn't justify special exemptions

Walking around campus the last few days, I have noticed a number of signs promoting a rally to end the sales tax on student textbooks. While I admire student activism and the changes it can bring, I believe that this idea is misguided.\nThe posters I have seen ask if we as students are tired of paying more for already expensive textbooks. What standing do we have to make that complaint? What about the family of six that gets hit with a $500 sales tax bill for a new car? Or when they have to pay sales tax on clothing?\nSomehow, we as students have decided that we deserve all manner of special treatment just because we are students. I don't believe that we do. Yes, we are pursuing an education to better ourselves -- but that does not mean we are better than others. We are compensated generously for our student status -- we get educational tax credits, government subsidized student loans, not to mention that the government spends a fortune to keep our school one of the best in the country.\nGovernment recognizes that education is important and it does a lot to help us afford it, but there has to be a line somewhere. Trying to get a sales-tax exclusion on textbooks is taking advantage of what we have been given.\nIt's time for us to live up to fiscal the responsibilities of being citizens.