>David
>
>I don't remember if I posted this article before but a
>study done by Smeal College found that materialistic
>"tweens" shop more and save less:
I don't deny that a fevered cult of consumerism exists in the U.S.A. Nor would I deny that the youth have proven to be very susceptible to it. However, what I found irritating about "Who Has the Power Here?" and "Affluenza" was how they repeat an old cultural mantra. If you've read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Fear of Falling" (and if you subscribe to this list, you probably have), then you remember her descriptions of intellectuals fretting about pampered youth in the 1950's and 1960's. It provided them a neat way of avoiding other issues -- things like the distribution of wealth and Vietnam. Now, after heads got busted in Genoa, we see a whole new group of anti-affluence thinkers on the horizon. Coincidence?
Talking your parents into buying a Playstation is not real power. Real power is when your parents divert money from the school system to juvenile prisons.
-- David