Niall Ferguson: If young Americans knew what was good for them, they would all be in the Tea Party. “Governments should be more honest about the size of their debts and young voters would be wise to get politicians to pay them off as soon as possible…” Well, if the publik skools taught kids math instead of the Gospel according to Gore, maybe they’d be able to figure this kind of stuff out.
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When has youth EVER known what was good for itself, regarding anything?
Disagree. I put most of the blame on parents that are not acting like parents. Good kids are everywhere that know what's good for itself. The WWII generation knew what was good for itself, as a whole (exceptions abound...). A general statement like that takes from the accomplishment of a lot of hard-working young people.
A parent should be vigilant and see that the culture is wrecking their childrens' minds, and put a stop to it. That means the parent has to endure discomfort and extra work, when they realize that they cannot use a television as a babysitter, and should make the sacrifices needed to spend the right amount of time with their kids, instead of letting them be raised by people outside the family.
Liberalism per se has to be indoctrinated into a kids mind -- it flies in the face of logic, and so the only way they can make it fly is to exclude logic, caring, and good parenting from the upbringing of America's youth.
Harsh. I have known many young people (myself included) that know what is good for ourselves especially when our backgrounds and our lives were difficult. Sadly it takes that in many cases for young people to do what is right, but at the same time not all as others are weak minded and spirited and do what is wrong when circumstances are not ideal. I guess it is called humanity, but I wouldnt generalize that all young people don't live in reality. Now as far as US young people are concerned, since I wasn't raised here, I guess one can make the case that, as I stated above, parents and grandparents were not keeping it real and in some cases the absence of good parents or parents at all is an issue.
It is indeed complicated.
When they grew up.
Unfortunately it can take years to correct a youthful indiscretion, but we may never recover from an evil government.
In all truth elder americans need to share the blame here. A lot of people raised children in luxury or close enough to it because they lived in austerity and wanted better for their children. Overall, not all parents and grandparents did this of course, there are many outstanding young people who are embracing the reality of life and many who are doing something about it. Sadly however a lot of young people who have never had it hard (many times due to cuddling parents and communities) will not embrace something they have never experience or are afraid to experience because they don't want to think about going without. Look at OWS and how they ran to the police whenever their ipods and what nots were stolen... it was idiotic.
Austerity? What is that?
I know I grew up in the lap of luxury!
We had a 4 room house, kitchen, living room, and 2 bedrooms (one bathroom, which doesn't count). Myself and my 2 brothers shared a bedroom, a bunk bed and trundle to sleep on, one closet and one dresser for all our clothes. We had no idea how well off we were because everyone else we knew had their own bedroom and tons of toys to play with. We had a few toys and our imaginations.
Funny thing though, when faced with adversity, like losing a job or some other financial problems, we all managed to survive. We had one TV, one phone, and the one luxury my parents afforded themselves was 2 cars. One for my dad to go to work, and one for my mom to go to the store, laundromat, run errands, and run us kids around in the summer to the library and to swimming lessons.
We had a 12' above ground pool that kept us busy most of the day in the summer when we weren't exploring in the woods. We had no idea what was on TV during the day.
Sometimes I wish we could turn back the clocks to those days, and relive them as adults.
As a small child I lived pretty well (barely remember), however I lived in different shades of poverty and lower middle class after my parents divorced. It took a lot of work and years on my Mother's part to get us out of that and even though we are better now, we still have to work hard just to survive and live comfortably.
With all of that said, I guess considering other countries (like Somalia) most people in Western countries live in the lap of luxury as it were again in comparison to other countries. However as we know very well, it takes time and effort to live comfortably in this country (and others). My Mom knew poverty really well and even though in comparison I don't know that kind of poverty I have also experienced it well enough to know that I need to work hard, whereas I know for a fact that a lot of young people have never experienced any level of poverty at all. I don't advocate people living in poverty to know the real world, but I do believe that parents and grandparents need to keep it real and learning to do without from very early is a good thing to do for the kiddies. I myself will remember that as I (hopefully) have children at some point in time.
Above ground pool? DAYM you were living high on the hog, we had a "crick" to play in, sometimes....if it rained.
But we spent a lot of time in the woods, or playing "sandlot" baseball, or football.
Of course, nowadays the parents have "organized" the fun out of it, or little Johnny or Janie would get hurt and the parents would sue the owner of the field.
We didn't have a crick, even when it rained.
You're right, parents and gooberment organized and PC'd the hell out of fun!
I don't think early Americans would have ever thought that there would have been a time when government would outlaw lemonade stands, bake sales and physical education games.
Poppa, you DID live in the lap of luxury. I grew up with my mom and the prick she married when I was 5. They started pumping out kids at a record rate, and the stepbrother came to live with us. Six kids and two "adults" in a 900 square foot house.
I couldn't take it, so I moved out into a camper in the back yard when I was 11, and was thrown out of there when I graduated highschool.
I guess that's how a person learns self sufficiency, though.
The option of moving in with my Dad was always open, but I couldn't deal with his highly structured lifestyle, so I never took him up on it. I would have been much better taken care of, but would have lost my freedom in the process.
You're right. That's how you learn self sufficiency and personal responsibly, which is amazing considering we grew up in the '60s and '70s.
Truer words never spoken. We ALL share the blame. Corporate welfare is as insidious as Ghetto welfare.
Then where would all the public employee unions get their members from?
Everyone thinks that all of the debt will just be resolved. They don't get it YET that it comes with a cost.
It's sadly clear to me now that the only way that this or any other country has to learn by the way of PAIN.