Chapter Five Summary and Analysis

In the 1990s, it becomes accepted conventional wisdom that American society is very bad for children and becoming worse. This is because Millenials childhood experiences are dominated by an optimistic individualism and its accompanying free markets and a simultaneous fracturing of the national culture. Millenials are mostly raised by rich and extremely hard-working Boomers.

The Millenials are the first generation to never live through a substantial economic downturn before coming of age. Along with the far greater proportion of mothers in the workforce than earlier generations, the long boom enables Millenials to grow up with far more material wealth than any generation before. Children living below the poverty rate is also substantially lower among Millenials with the total percentage of children in poverty falling from 22 in 1983 to 18 in 1998.

At the same time, however, society is far more fragmented. Faith...