My son & his friends are not "snot nosed little punks".  At the moment he is working at a summer job at the university he attends, painting dorms, waxing floors & moving furniture.  His friends & co-workers are mostly  exchange students from Africa & India who are there for the summer as well.  Most every night after work the crew walks a mile to swim at a small beach near the school, drink a little (I hope) beer & talk.  What he hears from the exchange students is that America is the best country in the world & that they are very happy to be here in school.    None of them, including my son, have slacked off to get where they are. 

The idea that all American young people are self indulgent, morons, is ridiculous; & incredibly stupid surveys like the one attached to this post, weighted towards "proving"  that assumption, just simply aren't valid.  Think of all the young people you know right now.  One of my son's friends is a multimillionaire for a computer concept he invented when he was in high school.  Another kid, dropped out of high school, went on the wrong path for a couple of years, straightened himself out & is working hard as an apprentice carpenter.   Another is a young woman, who, as a sophomore in college, was preaccepted into a prestigious medical school.  I could go on & on with examples of intelligent, thoughtful, hardworking young people who got where they are by applying themselves to their studies.  Sure, there are kids addicted to drugs, who have no concept of the misery they're in for, & I also know young people who dropped out of high school, & are sitting at home watching tv & leeching off their families.  The majority though, from what I see are not the "fat, lazy, leetspeking, twitch skilled brats" that Wm Pattison characterizes them as.  Substituting caricatures for characters doesn't work with me & not for anything, discloses a mind-set that is exceptionally  lazy in & of itself.