William Dickens wrote:
>
> Hi Bryan,
> Perhaps I misread these passages, but I interpret them to mean that the culture
>resides in the kids' peer groups and is transmitted from parents (when they were
>kids) to current kids via the link of ongoing peer culture. Note the use of the
>wording "passed down" which implies inherited -- not imposed from above (as in
>"passed down from generation to generation"). Also, she says that cultures are
>"self-perpetuating" not that parent group cultures change child group cultures. --
>Bill
Hmm. The quotes seem clear enough to me, but perhaps you need the
context too. How would you interpret this finding that she talks about
- that it is bad for kids to be in fatherless neighborhoods, but not
fatherless homes? That sounds like a clear (though unconscious)
distinction between the private and social costs of one-parent family
structures.
--
Prof. Bryan Caplan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan
"We may be dissatisfied with television for two quite different
reasons: because our set does not work, or because we dislike
the program we are receiving. Similarly, we may be dissatisfied
with ourselves for two quite different reasons: because our body
does not work (bodily illness), or because we dislike our
conduct (mental illness)."
--Thomas Szasz, *The Untamed Tongue*
