Exactly right. They've succeeded in demonizing personal transport as elitist and unnecessary. Ridership on public transportation in the Tampa Bay area has been up month-over-month for the last two years, and many attribute that to the rising price of gas.
I see fewer young people on the roads. My 21 year old cousin doesn't even have her driver's license and doesn't want it. She uses public transportation to get where she wants to go, or my aunt or uncle pick her up for longer trips to see family. It's sad.
Kids today are so enmeshed in their digital lives that having a real life outside of their smartphones and computers is alien to them. They don't want the freedom associated with a vehicle, and in many ways, I believe, that's going to become the norm quicker than we can turn it around.
We live in a "me, myself, and I" society. Obama is the leader of the takers. Kids today don't want to work, they don't want a vehicle or a home due to maintenance costs or regular payments. They want to live in their insulated little cocoons and be left alone, the only social interactions consisting of Facebook and Skype chats and the occasional out-of-doors adventures to a shopping center or grocery store.
The dream of independence is dead or dying around us. We might very well be the last of a breed, FReepers.
I agree with your post very much.
My perception is today’s youts want to spend 5 or 6 yrs living on credit in college and then move on to the “life of Julia”