American Kids Today: Better or Worse?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), teen pregnancy and birth rates in the U.S. have been declining since 1991 and hit a record low in 2019. 


The CDC also indicates that young Americans are less and less inclined to have sexual intercourse during their high school years. This trend makes sense of the drop in teen pregnancy today.


How about drug and alcohol use? The National Institute on Drug Abuse found in 2021 that American teens have continuously been smoking less and drinking less for decades. Indeed, between 1991 and 2019, the percentage (%) of American teens having "ever tried cigarette smoking" came down from 70 to 24. During the same period, there has also been a sharp percentage fall in current smokers (from 27.5% in 1991 to 6% in 2019).


The above findings show that today's American kids are doing better. Prove it if you believe otherwise.


--- by 寒苇

信息的高密度和引导偏见的能力（同时自己也是被带偏的信息源和评论员）。

我问你，如果过去相当长的一个时间段，美国的暴力犯罪率、枪击死亡率都比今天高的话，你凭什么声称，那些暴力都是针对大人物的，而普通老百姓比现在安全？无辜者比现在受到伤害的概率低？呵呵!

问题和挑战。因此，作为年轻一代，其忧思和着眼点也应当是不同的。（而且吸毒少、乱性少也只是“更好”的一方面）。原则上讲，美国的今天我认为还是一个问题与希望并存的状态。。。我几周前在论坛上post了一首长诗，反映了我的总体观点，供参考 --

https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/sxsj/164558.html

Not all drugs are created equal.  近年吸毒者更多使用opioids类，特别是使用fentanyl。由于这类药物的tolerance特性，在复吸时极容易导致呼吸衰竭，进而导致死亡。现在美国每年的死亡人数已经超过7万，是枪击死亡的两倍。这就是所谓的fentanyl crisis。

of it is from China, and the two countries have been playing blaming game for quite a while.

The deaths are largely white young people at the Rust Belt, a result of globalization.