--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> There was a piece in yesterday's NYT about how
> suburban parents keep
> their kids under lockdown because they're afraid of
> dangers lurking
> outside.
That may be true for some people or not true for other, but for most there is a more immediate cause - lack of transportation. You cannot get anywhere in the burbs unless you either drive yourself or have someone to drive you. There is a constant demand on parnets to chauffer kids around, or if the kids are over 16 to pay a small fortune to get them a car and a driver's licence (insurance premiums are astronomical for minors. Many parents simply refuse doing it unless something more worthwhile than mere "hanging out" is involved. Add to it a constant fear that your kids may get into a car crash as their driving skills and experience are usually not that great. For example, I did not consent for my son to get a junior driver's licence (he got one only after he turned 18), partly because of the cost, partly because of the risk, partly to make a statements that driving is not a right but an expensive privilege, and party because we lived in a city and other forms of transport were available.
That is a stark contrast with my own childhood - I could go anywhere I wanted wihtout asking anyone for a ride or a permission to move around - simply by taking a tram or a bus. So much for the "freedom" of being dependent on the automobile.
Additionally, no one knows any neighbors,
> so there are no
> naturally occurring friendships among kids who live
> near each other.
This has more to do with geographical mobility and treating your house as an investment rather than a place to live. People buy houses for their potnetial of making money, then sell it and move on and do not bother to get involved in the community. But you see much greater interaction in more stable communities - at least I've seen that in older residential settlements in central PA.
> Plus, play is a distraction from the work of
> preparing the kids for
> hypercompetitive worklives.
I don't know to what extent it is a real problem, rather than yet another media-invented scare that a "traditional family roles" (if there was ever such a thing) disappearing or perhaps anti-intellectualism that kids are getting "too educational." First women going to work, now kids going to work and spending thier time on culure & education, and here goes the American dream. I just have not met anyone fitting that mold - which imho is different from parents simply caring what their kids do after school and that they develop some interests other than tee-vee watching and button pushing.
>
> If this isn't a sad story of the sickness of
> American capitalism.
> People are frightened of their surroundings,
> alienated from their
> neighbors, andterrified of economic failure. Man,
> that's fucked up.
No question about that, I argued that myself, but I think this has more to do with the institutional setup of the US state rather than capitalism. Specifically, developers and car companies doing social engineering with government blessing. European capitalism operates differently.
Wojtek
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