I was born in 1982, and I've seen my peers evolve and do their thing. Judging from what I've seen and what I've heard, I think the accusation that american teenagers are lazy bums is unfounded. Same with the self-esteem issues.
Most teens work full time jobs at a young age, sometimes 2 part-timers on top of school. Employers LOVE today's teens; they'll work any shift, any amount of hours, and are mostly dilligent. Hell, they'll do any grunt work.
Many teens live at home simply because they can't afford living on their own. We're not talking the fancy stuff, we're talking the essentials. Unless you want to live in the dark and have no running water, you may not be able to get your own apt, regardless of whether you've been good with your money or not. Of course this depends largely on where you live, and whether you're attending college or not.
Regarding self-esteem and such : kids are as competitive, if not more so, than the beasts of the wild. Talk about anything regarding self-esteem and you're liable to be called a faggot (favored derogatory remark of modern man unfortunately
). Political correctness does not exist among teenagers, period.
The modern teenager falls flat on his/her face when it comes to managing money. If it isn't buying the 3.06 GHZ P4 rig when they found their 2.8 too slow, the $2k sound system or the $1k hubcaps, the $400 cell phone, or trendy clothing, they're getting themselves into huge debt on credit cards (they are the devil
)
There's a few asshole teens out there, but they're the most vocal, so they get all the media coverage
Currently, I have no job (no one,
but no one is hiring), attending college, and will move to town where unfortunately practically nothing exists. Compared to the average teen, I think I was a decent guy. Never had a detention or worse, never got in trouble with the law, never hit a girl, etc.
But these new kids, sheesh, they're fuckin ruthless. You have these 8 year olds that jumped right out of South Park!