Posted on 04/22/2019 7:50:18 AM PDT by NOBO2012
What’s wrong with kids these days? And by “kids” I mean anyone under 40. They don’t want to get their drivers’ license, don’t want to drive, don’t want to be out on their own. They seem perfectly happy relying on mom, dad, public transportation to get them anywhere they think they want to be.
This isn’t really a new trend, it started with certain Millennials. I first noted it when my friends’ granddaughter – who they raised – was reluctant to take drivers training, reluctant to get her license and then reluctant to drive herself around. In fact I doubt she ever would have if her grandfather hadn’t insisted. Several of her friends actually graduated from high school without ever learning to drive - and this was 20 years ago.
Patient like maybe for another 20 years or so
I was stunned at the time by this lack of interest in driving, but considered it a fluke. Not so, and it only grew worse. PBS reported on the phenomenon in 2017:
The share of high school seniors across the country who have a driver’s license dropped from 85.3 percent in 1996 to a record low 71.5 percent in 2015, according to data from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey. - PBS
They also reported on 16 year old Henry Stock who reported he didn’t see much reason to drive as he could talk to his fellow gamers online and call a rideshare if he needed to go somewhere. So while he had his learner’s permit, he hadn’t yet made much of a dent in the 50 hours of supervised driving he needed to get a full license in Florida.
“It’s more time and effort than I want to put into something that won’t benefit me a lot right now,” Stock said.
Wow. The indoctrination program has finally realized its objective: kids don’t believe independence is worth the hassle. The WSJ reported on it last Friday. Their focus was on the impact the trend will have on Detroit’s auto makers:
The percentage of teens with a driver’s license has tumbled in the last few decades and more young people are delaying purchasing their first car—if buying one at all, say analysts, generational experts and car industry executives. About a quarter of 16-year-olds had a driver’s license in 2017, a sharp decline from nearly half in 1983.
They fail to comment on the fact that 1983 was also a sharp decline from 1963 when nearly everybody got their driver’s license as soon as their state allowed. We had things to do (riding the circuit), places to go (after school jobs), people to see (real friends, in real time) – not to mention dates. There are no circuits anymore, fewer and fewer kids have jobs in high school and even “dating” as once defined is growing obsolete.
PBS tried to blame the “Great Recession” for kids not having after school jobs but that’s malarkey. Parents don’t want their kids further burdened with a job when they have to think about the grades, community service, sports and music lessons required to get into a good college. And to relieve the kids from the added pressure of having to get to their appointed rounds by themselves, they chauffeur them everywhere.
As a result, kids today really don’t want to be free:
Whereas a driver’s license once was a symbol of freedom, teenagers are reaching their driving age at a time when most have access to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft to shuttle them around town. At the same time, social media and video chat let them hang out with friends without actually leaving the house. – WSJ
They want to be Europeans, pretending to be free but not, really.
Wait, what? Why’s the steering wheel on the wrong side?
We’ve got a lot more to worry about than the impact on Detroit’s bottom line. We now have two generations totally indoctrinated with the belief that the internal combustion engines are an evil force contributing to global warming by burning dirty carbon fuels. They believe that being dependent on somebody other than themselves is a grand solution, they will willingly cede personal independence to the government “for the greater good.”
How very sad.
When they could all be off to look for America.
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
The only reason for Earth day this time of year is to take the focus off Easter——stupid “holiday”.
Tire fires? Wasteful trips up and down the back roads? Some 4 wheelin’? Dirt biking? Still enough snow to go snow machining today in the mountains.
Ohhh hooray, it’s Erf Day!
Got lights?
“The only reason for Earth day this time of year is to take the focus off Easter——stupid “holiday”.
I doubt that.
That's because everyone is buying Trucks/SUVs.
Sorry, I don’t celebrate commie dictators [Lenin].
Earth Day needs to go away ...
And here I thought Earth Day was to celebrate the birth of V. I. Lenin - father of rapacious Communism.
Silly me.
I’m never certain what to do on earth day?
Should I recycle or should I murder my girlfriend and put her body in a trunk?
Just do what your fearless leaders would do...
NYC Mayor de Blasio: ‘We Are Going to Ban’ Glass and Steel Skyscrapers
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/nyc-mayor-de-blasio-we-are-going-to-ban-glass-and-steel-skyscrapers/
This crook is insane.
The less teenagers on the road, the better the rest of us are.
One of the reasons why could be they can’t afford a decent new or used car. The cash for clunkers debacle a few years back drove up prices and depleted the supply of used cars.
I hope to do some 4 wheeling and ATV-ING someday.....
Prisoner of the burbs.
It fits the logic of the left kill people but save a plant.
Young people DO want to drive today. It’s just unaffordable.
When I was young, we could pick up a clunker for a few hundred dollars.
Today, a car, auto insurance, etc., are very expensive. The kids get driver’s permits because a permit doesn’t require insurance.
That’s why one family member is driving everyone else around. Sometimes one parent drives everyone, even the other parent, back and forth to work.
When you think about it, today is like the old days - one car per family.
Yesterday we let my 19-year-old teenage girl drive us all around West Marin on Windee roads and she drove like Mario andretti
my wife’s knuckles were white the entire time but it was her car and her decision so there you go!
Beat me to it. This article is more cud-chewing “blame the yunguns’ “ crap with no thought put into it.
I didn’t want to drive for half a decade because a few weeks into learning how I nearly killed myself and my father. So sue me.
When I finally DID have a reason to drive independently it took me another 2 years to scrape together the dough because “cash for clunkers” had just finished. Between the car cost ($5k cash in hand), insurance (!@#% robbery), wheel taxes (MORE robbery) I was damn near broke after walking off the lot.
Ridesharing looks pretty darn affordable compared to having to pay out the nose just to have the privilege of paying out more for gas, maintenance and insurance. No duh a near-broke young person is going to spring for it.
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