Of course I intended to convince people. What's your point? Adults are responsible (and in particular, legally responsible) for their own actions, not the people who taught them to act that way.
I also like to use analogies. But this one really is misleading.
We are not speaking about juridical crimes here and not about children but adults. It’s one if the main differences between children and adults that society expects the latter to communicate, to express their thoughts, and to take responsibility for their actions or lack of action.
But nowadays in debates like these I see the emergence of a devaluation of these features that until now clearly differentiated children from adults. The individual of age is described like a helpless, voiceless child.
I find this seriously worrying (which is why I spent hours this Saturday in this comment debate, which I rarely do).
> Substitute the word "adult" for "consumers" in what you say, "Adults will take as much credit as offered to them." (No, they won't.)
What you are doing is suggesting that being an _Adult_ carries with it certain behaviours such as not spending more money than the adult can afford to repay. However, the word Adult actually means being of a certain age, and perhaps you would like to assume that everyone of that age has that level of maturity and prudence.
I think what you really mean is that adults ought not to o these things, and if they do these things, they are defective in some way, and therefore don't count. This is a little like those drug studies where anyone that dies while taking the experimental drug is tossed out of the study.
So when I say "Martha over there got a $26,000 line of credit even though she is a home-maker with no income and no assets in her name," you say "Martha isn't really an adult, she is a foolish child in a woman's body."
The simple fact is, adults do many things you and I might consider reckless or illogical such as borrow more than they can afford.
I think he's talking about later in life, middle aged or later. It is clear that kids have much less maturity and ways to deal with things and need help when an adult usually does not. Even if they could, they have a lot less options to do anything by themselves, for example they can't just quit and move away (leaving aside that as an adult you still need a certain level of money to do that).
Also, in all those discussions I think it would be safe to assume "statistically speaking" unless being able to show one individual counter-example proves or disproves a point being discussed. Usually statements are not made under the assumption to be valid for every single person unless it is explicit.
I made it farther than that, but also stopped. It seemed to go on and on without making it's point.
It also seems it missed a big part (unless they talk about it later). Sure, some people might be doing stuff because of hardships and responsibilities (like living at home to save money). But I think there are also those who were not given responsibilities as a child and don't know how to be responsible and act like an adult now that they are one. I think the delays are even evident in our laws (age of many things continues to increase).
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