I saw an article the other day that households where both parents work actually end up (on average) making less money than if one of them simply stayed home and looked after the house/ family. This is difficult to fathom really seeing as how everyone definitely lives beyond their means in today's consumer culture.

When i was young my father was a mid-level manager at a telecom company and while we didn't have the best stuff and even had hand-me-down and yard sale clothes, it was necessary because we were on a budget. It all worked out in the end though. I think families just need to be smarter with their finances... IE you cant just have everything and go out to eat all the time.

It ended up teaching me good life skills though because I had a paper route and worked on the weekends at a football stadium selling popcorn in the stands to buy my video games. It let me know that nothing is free... you gotta work for it.

Sadly, i think most of those youth employment opportunities would no longer be legal thanks to the deterioration of society in general.