> You know, it's not the kids' fault. If there are things about the
> direction of capitalist societies we don't like - more competition, more
> materialism, more atomization - won't that be reflected in the development
> of children?
Yep. The US has remarkably few public places where kids can hang out and learn. Libraries are overcrowded and understaffed, schools are underfunded, daycare is expensive, parents are overworked, overindebted and too tired to teach their kids, etc. So the kids grow up in malls or in front of the TV.
But I didn't find the kids in the Oregon high schools I visited to be dumber than my generation. In some ways they were sharper - the males were less violent, the female students were much less damaged by patriarchal norms. Some of them were amazingly creative.
-- DRR