These days, it really seems like raising kids to deal with
capitalism involves turning them into rabid frothy-mouthed
commies who only want to tear down the state and replace it
with non-work-required utopia
What?
As a capitalist myself here's a book I really recommend:
I suspect you will walk away from it thinking the same thing most people do: Marx's criticisms of capitalism are absolutely vital and relevant to this day... and his solutions are even worse, and that capitalism is still probably the least terrible solution we've got. :)
But more to the point: there is no definition of socialism or communism that even remotely advocates this a "non-work-required utopia." It's all about work and workers!
(Now, in practice, socialist/communist societies wound up stratifying anyway, and elites often didn't exactly have to spend their days in a coal mine or shoveling pig shit like the commonfolk. But that's been pretty much true of every economic system under the sun since the beginning of mankind. So, even a cursory glance at history tells us that this is not a problem unique to socialism or communism.)
I'm not looking for a pro-/anti- discussion. Dialectic materialism never solved a thing.
What I do want to point out though, is that teens don't work like they used to. Some think thats a good thing; others do not. Alas, only the prosperity of future generations can really provide a valid indicator ..
You must meet very different teenagers than I do. Every store that has trash work to do here (for which they want to pay as little as possible) has teenagers working for them. The service industry employs them where they can get away with it too.
Adults always seems to believe teens don't work like they did.
Those adults are almost always wrong - although not necessarily in the obvious ways. A small minority of teens run successful YT/Instagram/WA/Etsy channels, and some of them make surprisingly good money from them.
As a capitalist myself here's a book I really recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Marx-Beginners-Rius/dp/0375714618
I suspect you will walk away from it thinking the same thing most people do: Marx's criticisms of capitalism are absolutely vital and relevant to this day... and his solutions are even worse, and that capitalism is still probably the least terrible solution we've got. :)
But more to the point: there is no definition of socialism or communism that even remotely advocates this a "non-work-required utopia." It's all about work and workers!
(Now, in practice, socialist/communist societies wound up stratifying anyway, and elites often didn't exactly have to spend their days in a coal mine or shoveling pig shit like the commonfolk. But that's been pretty much true of every economic system under the sun since the beginning of mankind. So, even a cursory glance at history tells us that this is not a problem unique to socialism or communism.)