Reaganomics and the decline of western civilization

   I had a conversation the other day with an older gentleman. We were doing some work in his yard and he came out to offer us water, and direction, in case we didn't know what we were doing.
   He seemed nice enough, even a bit lonely. He was retired, bored, and his wife was at work. He spoke with the lilting remnants of a brogue about his neighborhood. He had noticed us working at another house down the street earlier in the day and commented on how nice the woman that lived there was.
   He talked about how nice and quiet the area was and how friendly the neighbors were. Then he told me a story about how, a few months back, some young kids had torn up and down the street in a car, drunk, ruining some lawns and destroying  mailboxes.
   I, under the assumption that we were actually talking about kids, 16-17 year-olds, told him that, had I done something like that and been caught, my father would have marched me up to every door of every house in the neighborhood, forced me to apologize, and then offer to do anything I could to make it right.
   He told me that the "kids" had been caught, but nothing happened to them. They merely got fined and were sent on their way.
   Turns out the kids were in their early to mid-twenties, and their parents paid the fine for them. No harm-no foul.
   Then he said, with a straight face, " I blame Reaganomics for it."
   Fortunately I was wearing sunglasses so he couldn't see my eyes roll back in my head. He was, after all, a customer.
   He followed it up with a charming rant about how ever since Reagan came into power, parents have felt compelled to work. One income wasn't enough and so no one was around to properly raise the kids. The parents made up for the lack of attention by giving the kids anything they wanted and ruining the entire generation in the process.
   As I said, he seemed like a nice enough fellow, so I just nodded politely and went back to work, but it got me to thinking. Is Reaganomics the cause of all our problems today? Is it the reason that children and young adults have no respect for anything or anyone, especially themselves?
   I guess it's possible. The main thrust of what we call Reaganomics was to put more money into the hands of the people that earned it. To make us an economy of consumers. The more we consumed, the faster the economy grew. In order to consume more, we were forced to produce more. In order to produce more, we were forced to expand the workforce. In order to expand the workforce, more mothers were forced to work, leaving the kid-raising to...who? The kids?
   I remember the stories about latch-key kids growing up in the 80's. It was a new phenomenon back then. Kids who would come home from school to an empty house, both parents at work, forced to grow up and take care of themselves before their time. Now it seems as if no one wants to grow up at all.
   By the time I was in my mid-20's, I was on my own. Sure, Pops may have bailed me out of jail, but after that, I would have been responsible for any fines or consequences. I was a grown up. Now kids are still kids well into their 20's and even 30's.
   Mark Stein constantly laments the extended adolescence of American youths, and he has a point. Maybe if more of these kids were left alone to take care of themselves, they would show some responsibility for themselves.
   And that's really the key here. Individual liberty does not work without personal responsibility. Everyone is always crying about wanting more freedom. The freedom to choose, the freedom to be what we are, the freedom to do what we want. Nobody seems to want to take responsibility when these choices go awry. We have become a nation of pass-the-buck. The first thing we do when anything goes wrong is look for someone else to blame.
   So, who is to blame for this? We are.
   Parents are free to raise their kids, or not raise them, any way they see fit. If they feel it's more important to have a summer home on the Cape, a second car, or, in many cases, a simple family vacation once a year, who can question their decision to work?
   Can we blame the actions of the kids on the parents any more than we blame the kids for their parents misdeeds? Sins of the father and so forth?
   The fact is, we are all responsible for our own actions, or inactions. We all make choices and decisions that have repercussions. Repercussions span generations. My parents made decisions that affect my children. I make decisions that will affect my grandchildren. My grandparents made decisions that will affect my children's grandchildren.
   Reaganomics wasn't around when my grandfather came to this country, so what will my great-grandchildren blame for their children's misdeeds? Probably George W Bush.
   But hopefully, the kids that did the misdeeding.