[RBASE-L] - Re: Off topic

[KarenTellef]

I agree very much with what Victor said, that kids EXPECT too
much nowadays.  In my opinion alot of it has to do with the
new pressure that every kid is EXPECTED to go to college, which
I think is wrong.  When I was that age it wasn't a foregone
conclusion that you would go on to college.  You did if you
were very smart, or your parents were rich, or you wanted that
white collar position.  This opens up the doors for creative
ways of getting kids into college that have no business being
in college...  Boy could we digress on that I'll bet...

But what I wanted to say is that TIME magazine has an editorial
in the July 28 issue (how timely) about the differences between
the US and European in term of working.  Some quotes:  "while
Europeans cut the hours they spend at the office (..in France
it is illegal to work more than 35 hrs a week).. Americans were
concluding that you could be happy only if you work hard and
play hard...   In jampacked weekends they invented the uniquely
American concept of scheduled joy, filling a day off with one
appointment after another, as if it were no different from one
at the office."

He says that the jammed space of European convinced them to
value 'time'; whereas we in the wide open US value 'stuff'.  So
although I don't feel good turning over the country someday to
the current generation of kids, I agree with Jeff on the other
hand that emphasis on work, wealth and power is no way to
model your life.  Guess that puts me on the fence, huh?


Karen