Do U.S. children absorb the wrong values in today's economic/political system?

Group member Z suggested a topic related to this one. She asks whether American children are learning the wrong moral values from the kind of capitalism the United States (or, at least much of its political and business elites) has created this century. No, questioning some of the values our kids absorb in the you're-on-your-own-loser, plutocrat-celebrating zeitgeist we have created does NOT make one anti-capitalist. At least not in my opinion. The 20th century saw the abject failures of various centrally planned economic and authoritarian political philosophies, usually at enormous costs in lives and suffering and war and poverty. To me, capitalism married to a democracy that guided its growth and limited its excesses is what allowed people to create the rich, hi-technology world that so many of us enjoy. But have we perhaps moved too far in recent years towards the opposite pole? Towards the Libertarian pipe dream of unfettered and unregulated capitalism, where freedom of money and markets is always the highest form of liberty, and other rights and values - from free speech to our responsibilities to each other - matter less or barely at all? Or maybe not. Yet, anxiety levels are so high in the USA now! Including for children and teens. Witness the youth mental health crisis we have discussed before. Is our Republic of Anxiety really all about vibes, or AI, or Trump and immigration? Or is the specific *form* of hyper-capitalism we have chosen (or just accepted) part of the problem? If not, defend it, please. If so, what could be done about it as we simultaneously must juggle all of our other major societal problems? Join Civilized Conversation on Monday July 6th to debate and reflect on the kind of society we want - and what our kids are learning from the one we have. The 250th anniversary celebrations will have just ended. I expect they will mostly have looked backwards at what America has accomplished. Congratulations are well-deserved, IMO. As long as we…