AI Article Readings How getting richer made teenagers less free, By Kelsey Piper
AI reading of How getting richer made teenagers less free, By Kelsey Piper.
Kelsey Piper examines one of the great paradoxes of modern prosperity: as we’ve lifted children out of dangerous labor and early death, we’ve simultaneously stripped them of independence and agency. Starting with a striking account of teenage factory workers in 1913 and their surprising preferences, Piper traces how a century of economic growth has transformed not just material conditions but our entire conception of childhood and adolescence. She explores current attitudes toward children’s autonomy, the role of institutions in shaping parental anxiety, and asks whether we’ve traded one form of harm for another. It’s a nuanced look at what we’ve gained, what we may have lost, and the search for a middle ground that protects young people without suffocating them.
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