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<p>Anyone knows where I can find a chart/table that shows where our federal tax money went each year for the past 30 years or so?</p>
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<p>This makes me feel I am really poor. What is middle class anyway, one who can pay in full 60k a year college cost and get a new car every 2-3 years? My car is 10+ years old and shared with my kid.</p>
<p>My kids are 26 and 23, and neither of them owns a car. Neither of them has ever owned a car. One commutes to work by bicycle, the other by subway. </p>
<p>I think they’re outliers, though.</p>
<p>Owning a car in high school is not necessarily an indication of whether a child is coddled or entitled. It’s just not that simple. Where I live, it’s the kids in outer suburbs or rural areas who tend to have them–they’d be stranded otherwise. With the proliferation of sports and other extracurricular activities, the growth of two-working-parent families, and the need for many teens to hold part-time jobs, a car can sometimes save a lot of headaches for parents and create opportunities for their kids. </p>
<p>We live in town a little under two miles from the high school. My kids haven’t had their own cars. We are on the bus line, they both have bikes, and in worst-case scenarios they can walk. (It’s very hilly, but doable.) Plus, I can sometimes take a bus to work and leave the car for them. But not everyone is in our situation. And of the kids we know that have their own cars, it’s most often those who have one or two part-time jobs and have paid for them themselves.</p>
<p>Here’s the article about teens delaying getting their licenses (I’d originally seen it on Yahoo) [More</a> teens delay getting driver’s licenses - St. Joseph News-Press and FOX 26 KNPN: Local News](<a href=“http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/article_04503f22-b6be-5919-bc4a-9b4ef89cde15.html]More”>http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/article_04503f22-b6be-5919-bc4a-9b4ef89cde15.html)</p>
<p>Driving age is younger here in TN than where I grew up, but neither of my D’s were in a hurry sophomore year to get their license. But both were/are driving to school by senior year. We have an “extra” car that basically is DH’s old car that we decided not to trade in (for $700) when he got his last new-to-him car. But neither girl thinks it’s “their” car. However, since we live in an affluent area it’s not uncommon to see 16 year olds driving a Mercedes. Srsly. The HS parking lot can be an eye opener. But Nissan is also based here and employees can lease cars at a very low rate for family members. </p>
<p>Having my D’s drive is less about them than it is about DH & I. School is not walking distance, there’s no public transportation and it’s not convenient for us to drop stuff at work to pick up & drop off. They were great about getting rides when they had to, but it’s one less worry knowing they can take care of their own transportation needs.</p>
<p>I skipped many of the middle pages of this thread, but I have to say that my wife and I both were talking about this and we agree on at least the entitled part. Someone on the first page said they disagreed because their kids were wonderful. Well, my kids (most of them anyway) are the greatest kids around, and we have done everything we could to not coddle them, or make them feel entitled, but somehow it didn’t work. </p>
<p>I think there are two primary reasons for the way they feel. First, they know we make a good living and feel that if they are good kids that they should be rewarded with what they think are unlimited resources (trust me- they are not unlimited, not even close). They also get that way from grandparents, some of whom will literally take them shopping every single time they see them (which is often about every week). We have repeatedly asked them to stop doing it, but they refuse. </p>
<p>Maybe it is the area that we live in, but most of our neighbors kids are, at worst, spoiled brats and, at best, feel entitled. All of them get cars for their 16th birthday, and most get fancier cars than either my wife or I drive. I honestly don’t know a single kid who doesn’t have their own car, mine included. My wife and I both work, and our daughter who is of driving age needed a car to get to work. I gave her my 10 year old Civic, and bought another 10 year old Civic for me to drive. Is that coddling her? I would say no, but on the other hand, she does feel entitled to it. </p>
<p>YMMV, but we wholeheartedly agree with the original premise.</p>
<p>Where we live, kit’s fairly normal for h.s. kids to have cars.<br>
Both of our kids got cars at sixteen. S1 got a 1989 Ford Bronco II. S1 was born in 1987. S2 got a 1996 Toyota T100 pickup. S2 born in 1990. No glamour rides here. Insurance on old vehicles not too bad.</p>
<p>We live in a suburb. There is no local bus system. School/work was not walkable or bike rideable. DH and I both work. Kids played sports after school and worked at local grocery store (using their earnings for gas, car maintenance/ oil changes they did themselves and any other expenses…movies, trips,ipods,eating out w/ friends etc). They often worked until store closing and were late getting home. Logistically, DH and I (and our cars) just could not always be available when the kids needed to go to work or sports practice. S1 worked 25-30 hours/week during his senior yr. No way we could have kept up w/ his schedule.
They needed their own transportation.</p>
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<p>Nonsense. The vast majority of kids here–and this is one of the wealthiest towns in my admittedly poor state–do not have cars. Many have part time access to an old family car, largely because there is absolutely no public transportation.</p>
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<p>regionally dependent?</p>
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<p>[The</a> Go-Nowhere Generation - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/the-go-nowhere-generation.html]The”>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/the-go-nowhere-generation.html)</p>
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<p>Read more: <a href=“Why drive when I can go online? Watershed moment for young drivers as numbers plummet because of the internet | Daily Mail Online”>Why drive when I can go online? Watershed moment for young drivers as numbers plummet because of the internet | Daily Mail Online;
<p>SlitheyTove: it seems to be a world wide trend, according to the daily mail article.
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<p>Read more: <a href=“Why drive when I can go online? Watershed moment for young drivers as numbers plummet because of the internet | Daily Mail Online”>Why drive when I can go online? Watershed moment for young drivers as numbers plummet because of the internet | Daily Mail Online;
<p>My experience with young people and cars is almost the exact opposite of annasdad - it’s not a rite of passage and the young people don’t even want them. They do need to live in areas with mass transit for this to really be feasible. Or be really good bicyclers.</p>
<p>My kids are 22 & 30, neither has a car, although each currently has a serious BF who does.</p>
<p>I wonder if some people are seeing a kid driving the same car all the time and assuming that it is “their car” instead of merely one of the family cars. When our oldest started driving (not a minute too soon, might I add), though the poor child only got to drive one of our beaters, it saved us from spending 2 1/2 hours driving them to school and back every day.</p>
<p>My S was born in 1988 and got the use of a 1988 Blazer when he got his license at age 16 in 2004. He had to pay for his gas and the increase in insurance. He got a job tutoring.</p>
<p>He had his wallet stolen at school with his license in it on a Friday. I told him he could not drive w/o one. He mentioned me taking him to school the next week. I told him the “default setting” on transportation now that he could drive was no longer ME. He would need to walk or find a ride.</p>
<p>Coddled and entitled is a result not a foregone conclusion.</p>
<p>Actually, that last part just sounds rather mean.</p>
<p>07Dad–be careful what you wish for. your son’s wallet was stolen, why wouldn’t you be willing to help him out with a drive to school? one day we will be the ones needing the support of our children, the drive to a hospital…or maybe we will lose our license due to being unable to drive. </p>
<p>The song, “Cat’s in the cradle” comes to mind.</p>
<p>Nah–he went online and figured out how to get “legal.” IMO a parent not being or providing the easy solution to every problem is not mean, but each to his own.</p>
<p>You should be able to get your liscense quickly replaced online.
(xposted with 07Dad)</p>
<p>[Vehicle</a> Technologies Program: Fact #618: April 12, 2010 Vehicles per Household and Other Demographic Statistics](<a href=“Vehicle Technologies Office | Department of Energy”>Vehicle Technologies Office | Department of Energy)</p>
<p>Somebody is obviously driving more.
The previous generation lived too large.
[Historical</a> Tables | The White House](<a href=“http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals]Historical”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals)</p>
<p>Table 3.2 might help.</p>
<p>I think it is an individual thing and not all teenagers seem to work the same way. A bunch of my kid’s high school graduated class have had cars for at least two years. My kid never pushed the issue and never did get a license (did get a learner’s, went through the whole class thing etc) and was content as a clam being driven around everywhere or bumming rides with friends. I am guessing she wont need to worry until next summer at the earliest once she goes off to college.</p>
<p>We do have an extra car at home.</p>
<p>The car thing does vary a lot. Our school has a good mix of wealthier, middle class, and poor students. I see a lot of clunkers and old pickups in the parking lot – only a very, very few new and/or expensive cars. It seems that most students who drive are ones who are there after school for athletics, clubs, or tutoring. They wouldn’t make the bus, their parents work, and they do not live within walking or even comfortable biking distance. On the other hand, more and more often I hear of students not getting their licenses until they are 18-19 years old – or even until they graduate from college and have to be able to drive.</p>
<p>It’s hard to compare how “coddled” the generations are/were. My parents’ generation was not catered to much, and life could be tough. On the other hand, most everyone who wanted to work could find a job (even if it was in a factory) that would provide for them through retirement, then given them a pension. My generation was more catered to, but we have given up the assurance of having a stable-until-you-retire job and pension. My children’s generation has been even more catered to, but they are entering a world where there is even less job assurance and where the Internet feeds our every fear.</p>
<p>If we cater to our children, aren’t we also catering to ourselves? Why do we need the fanciest cell phones, pay TV, and the newest electronic device? Why do we feel the need to get our children in the “best” colleges? – Bragging rights?</p>
<p>I don’t see our children’s generation as any better or worse than any previous generation. On the one hand, I think they feel more entitlement – and our generation is responsible in large part for that. On the other hand, I see them heavily involved in volunteer work (even if some of that is for college applications 
). Also, I see how accepting they are of people of different races, religions, and sexual orientations. In some ways we progress; in other ways we regress.</p>