I'm assuming you're a troll but if not, I would love to know where you're from.
My kids have tons of books, every house I go to has a huge bookshelf. We
have dozens of coffeeshops that are always full of people reading books.
My kids bring home new books each week from school. What makes you think
american parents don't have books and don't give books to their children. Yes,
kids watch TV more today but there are still tons more books than there were
when I was a kid.

>
> . In addition, things are otherwise more stable wrt compensation/benefits/employment.
>

I disagree with this part. Yes, your income is more stable week to week but so what? You shouldn't
be living paycheck to paycheck anyways. Someone who is self employed actually has more stable
compensation in alot of cases especially if they have multiple clients as they can't show up to work
one day and have their income instantly drop to zero because of factors outside of their control.
And I know multiple people who are employed yet decline employer benefits and keep their own
insurance just because it is more stable to have third party insurance than to have your insurance
change everytime you switch jobs. So yes, compensation/benefits/employment are more stable
as long as you stay with the same company for a long period of time but that's becoming rarer and
rarer.

Yes, certain ventures take luck and risk, but many do not. It's easier than most people
realize to create new wealth. For instance if you grow tomatoes in your backyard, you can almost
certainly sell them, eat them, etc... Your per hour rate might not be great but there is really no risk.
Likewise if you buy a junk car/bike/house and fix it up then there is very little risk as you can
usually always sell it for what you paid for it but if you spend the time fixing it up chances are you
can sell it for alot more.

>
> in most cases *you can't start a business*
>

Where do you live? In the US you certainly CAN start a business.
My dad and several of his siblings, my mom's dad, and a host of other people
I personally know started with NOTHING and are now successful business owners.
Yes, it takes time and sometimes the ability to save but starting a business is not
hard. I get annoyed when the media talks about companies or the government
needing to create jobs. If you go out and create a job for yourself not only will your
livelyhood not be dependent on the whims on your employer but you'll probably
be happier too. I have dozens of friends and relatives that work for themself and
would never go back to working for someone else.

Oh, it's completely voluntary. You voluntarily give us your biometrics or you don't get your welfare check.
Noone is forcing them to do it, just saying they don't get any food if they don't. In that same way, the
income tax is also voluntary. You are only forced to file and pay taxes if you make about a certain amount.

>
>Only ten more years, it'll also be in the public domain
>

Want to make a wager on this? So far the mouse has managed to extend its copyright
everytime it is about to expire.

>
> In real life we pay for cops via taxes. Part of their job is to offer advice and even survey your home for ways that criminals might break in. It's part of the service.
>

Where are you located? I've never heard of public cops giving home inspections. I've had ADT,etc... give advice (i.e. try to sell me stuff)
and I've even had landscapers give advice (again, try to sell me on work), but I've never heard of public cops giving home audits.
The only home audits I've heard of in the USA are energy audits which are sometimes free to some people if they are low income or live
in certain areas. The only advice I've even seen from cops, etc... are signs or announcements that state things like "lock your car doors,
don't leave valuables in plain sight" Other than possibly getting off-the-cuff recommendations AFTER a break-in occurs where have you
heard of cops doing surveys and giving advice on how to prevent breakins.

I should have specified "cellphone" instead of "device". I realize many other devices exist for years
but at least in the US, we are artificially forced into a 2 year upgrade cycle so I would be very
surprised if you find very many phones in corporate america that are older than 2 years.

If I had to guess, working in IT, you probably only support devices for 1-2 years max so it's not surprising that you've never seen one fail.
In my experience, if you don't accidently damage the phone, the first thing to go out from normal wear and tear is the micro usb port.
Also, In my experience, it does ironically seem like "planned obsolescence" as the microusb usually fails about the 3 year mark shortly
after my contract is up and it's time to pony up more money for a new phone.

That's basically what I did for my family. I got the book and am teaching my kids (both boys and girls)
how to camp, make fires, archery, etc. as I realized that you're right that girls are "unwanted" and
"unwelcome" and it's very hard to tell my daughter that she isn't allow to participate and it's easier for
me and takes less time to teach my kids together than to have my boys learn at boy scouts and still
have to find the time to teach my girl on my own.

This is primarily done because of single parents and working parents
where the younger siblings are there anyway. My point is that not only
are girls already there and are generally allowed to watch and/or
participate but that it would make it easier on the parents of multiple
kids, would help promote the "positive family values" they are suppose
to stand for, etc.... It doesn't make sense any more sense to have a
group a single gender as it does to have an occupation as a single
gender. Yes, more boys are going to want to join scouts and football
and more girls are going to want to join gymnastics and ballet but you
shouldn't disallow a kid from joining just because they happen to like
an activity that has traditionally been for the other gender.

As an additional note, in our local group she is allowed to attend
all the meetings with her brothers and do all the activities, she's
just not allowed to earn any merit badges, etc... so girls are still
present at every meeting and activity they just don't have the
same rights as the boys.

I know plenty of girls that would rather join boy scouts than girl scouts.
Would it really change anything if it was "family scouts" instead?
They advertise it as "family camp" but it's not really. My daughter would
love to join boy scouts. She enjoys the same type of activities as her
brothers as do many girls I know.

Even ignoring sexual orientation both organizations are openly sexist. Neither allows someone of the
opposite sex to join. Why shouldn't a girl who likes to camp be allowed to join Boy Scouts or a boy
be allowed to join Girl Scouts. The both should drop gender from their names and create programs
and policies that allow boys and girls with similiar interests to both join.

Let's store the next 30 years worth of excess carbon dioxide in huge underground chambers
so that instead of gradual climate change that the environment can adjust to and compensate
for we instead have a massive catastrophic climate change when one of those chambers
springs a leak.