I can’t tell you the number of lost young men in our extended family. These kids all had parents and grandparents that graduated from college. And yet they can’t seem to make any purchase on life. One consistent theme seems to be marijuana abuse. The kids all think marijuana is healthy and are essentially taught that in school. They don’t seem to be getting edification anywhere.

One thing that previous Americans all knew instinctively is that work and effort is gratifying and fun. Without obligations and goals life is boring. Most successful people don’t work only to earn money or just to buy brand name stuff. They work because bosses and/or employees and customers/clients depend on them. They work because it’s fulfilling and gives one purpose. They work because it’s intellectually stimulating at least sone of the time. They work also gives you social standing, and it makes you resilient and so forth and so on--even if you are only earning minimum wage. And yes eventually there are also monetary rewards too, and you can decide to use it on brand name stuff or tuition or travel or give it all away.

These kids aren’t learning that. They are too caught up in thinking they want to be rich and that all rich people live in some magical dream world where everything grows on trees and everything is perfect and there are no conflicts or setbacks to overcome.