Letters: Aug. 27, 2001

The Most Spoiled Generation Ever?

"I was raised with good old-fashioned fear of authority, and if I did wrong, I'd have a fast meeting with my mother's swatting hand!" KAREN H. DEPASS New Lenox, Ill.

We have a crisis with spoiled and overindulged children because they are being raised by spoiled and overindulged parents [SOCIETY, Aug. 6]. I am a baby boomer with two small boys. It saddens me to see my fellow boomers, who once turned their backs on mindless consumerism, jump feet first into the trough of rampant materialism. Parents should realize that to give their kids everything they want instead of just what they need is to sabotage their future. BILL WERNER Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Instead of providing a much needed substantive discussion of the changing relations of power and authority between adults and children, you provided us with a hollow piece of white, middle-class navel gazing. Children have clearly achieved a new, more empowered status as consumers, but you overstated the degree to which that has given kids the upper hand. More toys do not equal more power. In terms of politics, social policy and the institutions that directly affect and shape their lives, children continue to be relegated to the margins of social and political life. KYSA KOERNER HUBBARD Minneapolis, Minn.

Kids are like cars: If you can't control them, you shouldn't have them. Maybe it's time to require parenting licenses. Firm, consistent and loving direction is as much the birthright of every child as are food and shelter. ALICE STEIN Tonawanda, N.Y.

When we grant our children their every whim, we fail to equip them to handle the hardships, disappointments and struggles of adult life. And to treat youngsters as full-fledged adults from the age of two is to rob them of a true childhood experience, which is essential in producing a well-adjusted adult. ROBERT KOLINSKI Hamtramck, Mich.

--Are they the most overindulged brats in history or the victims of a bum rap? Many of the young people who responded to our story felt they had been unfairly dissed. "How can parents blame us for being spoiled, when pop culture and advertising--created by adults--have targeted us as a market?" asked a Colorado teen. "You slapped negative labels on our entire generation," complained a Californian. "None of my friends got a Mercedes for their 16th birthday. What we do have are the problems that the President is leaving for the future." A Wisconsin high-schooler was more upbeat: "Rest easy, folks. The 95% of us who weren't handed our lives on a silver platter will make sure your later years are prosperous and pleasant. Just keep the Cartier watch on layaway."

Walking Away from Kyoto

You said President Bush believes the Kyoto treaty is "fatally flawed because it doesn't require developing countries to limit their fossil-fuel use immediately, as it does industrialized countries," and therefore he retreated from discussions in Bonn [NATION, Aug. 6]. Bush fails to acknowledge that most developing countries don't have the resources to implement dramatic change in their fuel-use policies right away. The U.S. clearly does, however, and we must do so first and set the example for the world. We can't expect the stretched economies of Third World countries to bear the burden of measures we are unwilling to take. SAMANTHA HARTER Miami Beach