http://mises.org/story/3289

 

Here's an interesting article about how our society has been turning young adults into children, and the age of "adulthood" has been on the rise...

 

I have mixed feelings about this, because I think it's good that people are still having fun as they get older. And it makes sense that as lifespans increase, so should the length of our childhoods. But in general I think being a child shouldn't mean one isn't responsible for being emotionally mature.

 

The whole public school system is bent toward stunted mental-growth, because it confines children to socializing only with peers of the same age, something that wouldn't happen in the natural world.

 

Anyway, here's the article:

 

 

Book Review: The Case Against Adolescence

 

In his book, Democracy: The God that Failed, Hans Hoppe argues that democracy and government have made people less farsighted and not as concerned with providing for ever-more-distant goals. Thus, society is tending toward decivilization. As Hoppe describes, adults are being turned into children. Children have very high time preferences, living "day to day and from one immediate gratification to the next," Hoppe explains. American society has essentially lengthened childhood by creating adolescence.

 

In a very provocative new book, The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen, psychologist Robert Epstein contends that when mammals reach puberty, they function as adults — except in America that is. Starting a hundred years ago, Americans gradually increased the age of adulthood to what many Americans now believe to be 26. You've heard, "30 is the new 20," and "50 is the new 30." Soon we will all be kids again.

 

Epstein argues effectively that American culture collaborates in artificially extending childhood through public schooling and labor laws. In most of human history, young people worked side by side with adults from their early teens with young women becoming wives and mothers. Early on, he fingers the labor unions as the culprits behind child labor laws. In 1881, the forerunner to the AFL-CIO made child labor a high priority: "We are in favor of the passage of laws in the several states forbidding the employment of children under fourteen in any capacity, under penalty of fine and imprisonment."

 

Of course, unions didn't want the competition from young workers who are likely smarter and more productive than older workers. Work by David Wechsler and J.C. Raven indicates that our highest mental age is in our midteens. According to Raven, "Apparently by the age of fourteen, a child's trainability has reached its maximum, while after the age of thirty, a person's ability to understand a new method of thinking, adopt new methods of working, and even to adapt a new environment, steadily decreases."

 

Of course today's teens don't act like they have the most brainpower in society. How could they? They are isolated in government schools away from adults and given no responsibilities — they are infantilized. Infantilized by the many laws restricting young people: curfew laws, tougher driving laws, teen-wage laws, laws curtailing sexual activities, free-speech restrictions at school, censorship of educational activities, dress codes, smoking and drinking laws, ad infinitum.

 

But government and unions are not the only teen enemies. The author makes the case (sometimes effectively, sometimes not) that everyone works against teens being adults. The media portray teens as self-absorbed; business makes big bucks promoting teen culture; and even parents underestimate their teens' abilities.

 

Epstein's book is chock-full of examples of young people in history who have made tremendous contributions. Louis Braille, if he were a blind kid today, would be cooped up in special-needs classes. Fortunately, he lived in the early 1800s and had perfected the Braille system by the time he was 15 years old. Samuel Colt invented the multiround, revolving-head pistol when he was 16. Edgar Allen Poe had his first book published at 18, including poems he had written at age 12 and 13.

 

The fact is, creativity is at its peak in early childhood and the teen years. But as we enter adulthood, we learn to conform, which takes a toll on creativity. Public schooling was created to mold young people into compliant citizens, sapping their creativity. Teen ingenuity remains high, but given the need to rebel, lack of adult companionship, and laws prohibiting the signing of contracts, their creativity is rarely channeled into positive pursuits.

 

 

In a test for "adultness" cocreated by the author, the difference between how adults and how teens scored was statistically insignificant: "Age is simply not a reliable measure of adultness," Epstein writes, "at least not once people are past puberty."

 

So what should we do about all of this? Obviously abolishing the myriad of laws restricting teens would be a good first start. But, unfortunately, Epstein believes young (and old) people should be given rights only if they can pass competency tests. And one gets the feeling that government would be doing the administering of these tests — as if government bureaucrats should be trusted with the job.

 

As well done and interesting as Epstein's book is, he doesn't go far enough. As Murray Rothbard wrote in The Ethics of Liberty, a child has rights "when he leaves or 'runs away' from home." Forget the tests; just set kids free.

And it's been ignored for too long with a game of tossing the blame from one side to another and keeping it quiet.

I'm not in a reading mood...sum it up for me?

Teens of today are going backwards compared to their equivalents of many years ago and being dumbed down due to the ever increasing age of the age of "adulthood" thanks to society, government laws etc.

Teens of today are going backwards compared to their equivalents of many years ago and being dumbed down due to the ever increasing age of the age of "adulthood" thanks to society, government laws etc.

please...not so many big words...:P

That's a lot of big words Nick :rolleyes:

i've been kind of discussing that with my dad those last days.. the way some people behave (adults) is a bit so childish in my opinion.

 

i think part of it is for the technological and social improvements society have.

 

i mean here in our world kids don't need to be in charge of certain tasks because them are provided (for instance water) where on other times or countries (what is called 3rd world) have to go walk long distances to get some water from a fountain.... so our society is more relaxed about many things, where on other times or societies, kids are more responsible at a younger age.

 

i don't mean we should go back or something (the best would be that they also have those improvements provided as we do have), but no doubt that those changes have influenced on the way we live now and so the priorities we choose and the task we do and so our behaviour, it has good sides and bad sides, for instance in my opinion is not good that some parents behave like lil kids, at least not as some of them do.

 

(btw i hadn't read the whole article, will do it later).

 

interesting jay :clap: