One thing that I can attest to being true is the knowledge of some freshman in college. I was at my brothers last night and his son and a bunch of his buddies were there on spring break. This is an assortment of freshman and they all came from Uni High (class of 08 obviously). Last night I after dinner I was asking them what they all thought about the current administration of which they were all raving about. They were ALL FIRMLY of the belief that the government is responsible for making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity for success regardless of level of effort. There was total agreement that people who make more then 100k a year are very wealthy and can easily afford a higher tax rate. I asked each one of them, including my nephew if they knew how much thier parents made and none of them did. I asked if they had any idea of the budget that thier parents were constrained by and none of them did. I asked them if they understood the ramifications of what changes our country may be faced with if we are suddenly forced to deal with our debt burden and none of them did.

The above story by jp may be an urban legend but what is not legend is a very fundamental misunderstanding about basic policies of not being able to spend what you do not have. A social utopia is not free. Our checkbook is not unlimited but by and large I feel that most young people have no clue about that.