Thanks for your comment and your kind words about my writing style. I have been posting on my blog for just over three years now, but it wasn’t always called Hope to Prosper.

The first year, I had trouble creating posts on a regular basis. When I look back at my early posts, it seems as though my writing has improved. I spend a lot of time on each post, which is why I only post around once a week.

I like your blog on bycicles. I’m a mountain biker myself and I rode a BMX bike everywhere as a kid. As you are probably figuring out, it’s a lot of work to maintain a blog. But, meeting and interacting with people is the fun part. Keep it up and good luck with your blog.

I took my 13 year old brother for a bike ride through some popular trails in the area. He told me he had never been there before. I was completely shocked. He then told me that none of his friends have bikes.

Think about that. There is a higher chance a young person owns a video game system than an actual bike (not some Nintendo Wii bike simulation).

There are simply too many distractions.

I am not perfect either but luckily for me I have been using the internet to educate myself. I start my own personal finance blog to hold myself accountable for my productive and money management.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope to see you around more!

This could be the entitlement generation because there are programs in place that make us feel that way. We have social security, medicare. So it makes us feel that once we reach “retirement age”, things will be taken care off.

But truth of the matter is that we have not saved up for this entitlement. The bill is simply passed on to the next generation. Our social security is “pay as you go”. There are many countries (like Australia) that do not have a pay and you go system. There have “forced savings”, kind off like payroll tax, in which a portion of your money is paid into a “social security” like account.

Yet, we tell other nations to be more “like us”, spend and boost “domestic consumption!”.

Anyway, we are in a decline. But it can be arrested. But big daddy government has to tell their kids (us) that they will not buy us any video games anymore!!

I don’t know if our democracy is failing. But nothing the Government is doing right now is helping to strengthen our country.

One of the most positive political changes I have seen is reform of the welfare system. Now, we are going backwards in a hurry. And, all of the handouts seem to be going to the wealthy.

@Andrea,

Good for you for not giving in on the video game. I’m glad your son is doing so well in school. I stopped buying my kids video games years ago and their grades aren’t so hot.

Two days ago, I ran into a kid I know at Walmart, where he was working. I asked him if he was going to college and he said he was taking swimming. I asked what his major was and he said “College isn’t for me. I have ADHD and can’t pay attention long enough to do well in school.” This broke my heart. This is a good-hearted person and he is facing a life of poverty.

Anyway, I told him that I think kids are over-stimulated nowdays. I told him that we had to do our work with pencils and we had to think out long complex problems in our minds and on paper. I don’t think the video games, MySpace and texting help kids to concentrate.

He was too, and he tried to parlay his grades into a new video game, saying that Mom’s pride is nice and all, but …

It didn’t work, of course. I told him that the real benefit of getting good grades is that it will help him get a good job so that he doesn’t end up living in Mom’s basement begging for video games when he’s 40, but I have to admit that a little part of me was thinking, “I hope I’m right about that.”

I know it’s typical for every generation to think that about the good old days and how things are so much worse now, but … what if it’s true? We’ve moved into such disparity between CEO and worker salary, total power by corporations, disregard for the “middle” class … sure, we’re all fat and relatively comfortable, but it’s a farce.

Or maybe I’m just in a bad mood this morning.

Spot on, Bret, as is your observation that young adults believe they are entitled to all of the rights, freedom and privileges of other adults.

My older cousin and I were talking the other day about the moment that we should start considering our kids to be adults. We both agreed that the threshold is crossed only after the kids are living away from home and completely supporting themselves with no help from us.

I am afraid the entitlement mentality is a sign of our nation’s inevitable decline. Most great civilizations are truly at the top of their game for more than a hundred years or so.

That’s just the way it is. We’ve had it too easy for too long and the destructive entitlement mentality is the end result.

It is up to us as parents to do our best to minimize it in our kids.

My $0.02 (after taxes),

Len