Vancouver Sun Sept 1st, 2011
It is staggering how stupid some people can be but apparently it is not an isolated human condition. It seems to run in families, a trait handed down from parent to child.
Two cases in point, occurred near my home this past week, one involving 13 young drivers (all 20 years or younger) and the other involving two teens 17 years of age. In both cases these fine upstanding young people were caught speeding on city streets, reaching speeds in excess of 200 Kilometers or 125 miles per hour.
Their reckless disregard for the safety of others was simply appalling by any measure, yet these young drivers seemed to feel their fast and furious behavior was no big deal. One of the young people involved in the first incident, was even quoted saying “We were just going for something to eat” as if they were driving Miss Daisy to Sunday brunch
It is simply mind boggling how disconnected these kids seem to be from the gravity of their inexcusable behavior. Sure if they were doing this on a closed circuit race track and happened to kill themselves, I could accept their cavalier attitudes but they weren’t. They were on public roads where people should have the right to drive without risk of getting run down by over testosteroned morons.
Without question, what these kids did was amazingly stupid but what about the other part of the equation? What about the parents of said stupid kids?
I would assume that a young person of 20 or less hasn’t the legal means to buy any of the vehicles involved in either of these incidents. The collective value of all 15 vehicles involved was in excess of 2.5 million dollars. In the mix were three Lamborghini’s a Ferrari, two Maserati’s an Aston Martin, Audi A8, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes and a list of other luxury cars that is almost as impressive. In addition to the massive price tags these cars carry, to insure some of these cars for young drivers (in my neck of the woods) is estimated to be as much as twenty thousand dollars for the year.
It begs the question, why in gods name would a parent give their child access to one of these cars? It is beyond words. I don’t care how wealthy somebody is, a kid does not need or deserve one of these vehicles. What could these parents have been thinking or has materialism in today’s world really gone this far?
What ever happened to your first car being a piece of crap you and your dad found in someones back yard buried under a mess of brambles and scrap wood? Back in the day when I asked for a car, all I got was a kick in the ass with a frozen boot and told never to ask again. I cannot imagine taking my 16 year old to the local Lamborghini dealer and saying “Pick one!”
The final obscenity is that these kids will hardly get a slap on the wrist. A fine, some driving prohibition and they will be back on the road before you know it. It is unlikely they will have learned any moral or practical lessons of any kind. They will not be repentant and will continue to risk the lives of others with their reckless behavior. The parents, well… Lord only knows what bonehead parenting maneuver they will make next but chances are it will be an epic fail.
In Parenting Oldschool’s opinion, what should be done is that all cars should be impounded and taken to the wreckers where the young drivers in question and their parents are forced to watch as their luxury automobiles are reduced to scrap. Alternate to that, all cars should be impounded and sold at auction. All proceeds would be given to the food bank or a variety of homeless shelters in the Vancouver area and then perhaps some good can come of these two incidents and some lessons learned.
Related Post: What a Riot – Youth off the rails
Why should you care what kind of vehicle these “kids” drive? If their parents can afford to buy them a Lamborghini then they should be able to. Maybe these kids deserved a car? Maybe they did really well in school or got accepted to a good university or something.
I am guessing that you are just jealous that your parents couldn’t afford to buy you an expensive car when you were a kid.
I just really feel sorry for your kids 🙁
I rest my case.
Wow! You live in a crazy city . . . I totally should have gotten a Ferrari for getting good grades, LOL! totally ridiculous.
I like your idea of auctioning the cars and giving the money to charity. I figure any young person (and yes if you’re 20 or under, you’re a KID) who doesn’t demonstrate the maturity to follow the rules of the road should also have their liscence confiscated, have to take drivers ed. and and then retake the drivers test after a year or so. Maybe the government should make it so any car with over a certain amount of horse power can only be driven by those over 30, and even then, only with a special licence, and training.
But I suppose those are all surface issues right? The real issue is these kids have a complete disregard for anyone else’s wellbeing, or rights to safety on the road. A complete lack of empathy, or understanding of the consequences of their bad behavior. Perhaps being raised rich, can, in some cases, lead to stunted social understanding and skills.
That kind of behaviour reveals a complete disregard for rules and the lives of others as well as an inability to see or care about the results of ones actions. The kind of thinking we would like to see in people is taught. It doesn’t come from some inner sense of right and wrong that we sort of hope comes to the surface as kids approach adulthood. The question then is how do we teach respect for rules and care for our fellow creatures well being?
I think the answer is simple. Early in life there should be very negative consequences for wrong behaviour including spanking, grounding, loss of priviledges, work to pay back for losses caused etc. etc. Parents should support teachers in their attempts at discipline instead of supporting the errant child. Finally responsibility (like the ownership of a car) should only be given to a child when they have demonstrated that they have earned it and can handle it and not a moment before. The possible consequences are just too serious.
Thanks for your comments Jen and Phil. I think what we have here is the confluence of a number of social ills which has brought us to this point.
Overindulgence, precipitated by wealth resulting in the disconnect between privilege and responsibility. On top of this is a less than Moral media message telling young people that they are suppose to act like complete idiots.
Unfortunately it is a place many families have come to in this world and society is expected to just deal with it because those with money are not held accountable for their actions in North America.
Just my humble opinion.
I think that you have made wealth the only or primary factor in creating this situation. The generality doesn’t work in that there are many wealthy families out there who also behave responsibly. I know many and work with many people who are wealthy by anyone’s standards but also have a very good idea of what is right and wrong. Their children do not behave like the kids who were driving those cars. I think that you need to bring other factors into the discussion. Irresponsibility mixed with unlimited resources and no accountability is what I see here but more than anything there has to be a solid foundation of what is right and what is wrong.
This may not be true of individual teachers but the system teaches kids that there is no right or wrong and there are no real consequences, the truth about life is what you make it, there are no absolutes, it’s all about “ME”. It’s not at all surprizing that kids behave the way that they do. They are simply applying what they have learned.
In this situation it was wealth that predicated the entire incident. These kids felt they were above the law and this view of the world and their special place in it was a direct result of being spoil rotten little brats.
As for knowing other wealthy people who do not take it for granted and act accordingly, I am sure we all know people like that but it doesn’t mitigate the fact that in this instance wealth was central to the behaviours which lead to these kids irresponsible actions.
OK, well explain the cause when undisciplined kids do the same sort of thing in a less expensive vehicle, or mob a convenience store and rob it blind or randomly beat up on people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would agree that wealth gave them access to the cars in this instance but I think there are other issues involved.
Simple, Piss Poor Parenting supported by a society that puts personal freedoms before the common good and blanketing that statement, a media that promotes the notion that wealth and fame and or infamy as the ultimate personal goal.
Our society is a cesspool of warped morals and values or should I say absence of morals and warped values.
@Keith, These kids obviously have a astonishingly profound sense of entitlement. In addition to the penalties you’ve suggested (which serve to punish the parents more than the kids) I would love to see a lengthy period of community service for each of these young offenders. Perhaps breaking rocks, digging ditches, or shoveling a few tons of manure. Of course, no chance of this happening in the real world. Shame…
Ok, now we are getting somewhere. So now the question is where do the moral values that you apparently want these kids to run their lives by come from? I believe in and you are alluding to an immutable code of right and wrong that very obviously has to be taught otherwise people remain barbarians and a danger to both themselves and to others.
So where does your idea of right and wrong come from?
Kids at that age believe that are immortal, it accounts for an awful lot of stupid behaviour. It’s shame they don’t realize how their actions could negatively affect someone else’s life, but that also tends to be the hallmark of youth.
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Well Phil, I am thinking we both know where we get our “idea of right and wrong” from and that would be our parental units. I content that if the parental units are void of any morality and or values coupled with no commonsense then well… The child is more than likely going to be a blight on society BUT with that said.
I have taught some phenomenally moral and well valued kids who did not have a positive parental influence so there must be a societal and personal elements elements at work as well so but the first line of good choice by youth is and always will be their parents.
Interesting article in the most recent National Geogrpahic on the Teenage Brain.
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I don’t care what kids drive as much as I care about HOW they drive, A bucket of bolts driven like this can do as much damage as a Lamborghini–while the Lambo is harmless if driven sensibly. My first car was a beautiful, turquoise-blue Camaro–which I drove responsibly during all the eight years that I had it. It was actually shared with my dad (as the second car in the family) for many years. I had it evenings, and he had it during the day (when he was working). I had it all decorated with pink flower decals, love beads hanging from the mirror, a poodle with turn-signal/break lights eyes, a bobble-head dachaund,etc. When my dad would arrive at work, he got a lot of ribbing for driving a Hippie car. I still (with the exception of a couple of special days) rode the bus to and from school and didn’t get full-custody of the car until the spring of my freshman year of college. It worked for my folks and me. They were in lower management for GM, and we were comfortable middle-class.