This article from the BBC gives a window into the soul of our country by asking some teenagers about their attitudes towards money.

Here are some quotes to make you think: “If there’s something I want, I’ll buy it,” says Connor’s classmate, Courtney. She admits she has a bit of a spending habit. “Its just those little novelty items that you have to buy,” she says. “Its just impulse goods and I’m just not very good at saying no.”

and…

“And the financial habits learned at their parent’s knee may be hard to shake off. “We’re very, very consumerist,” says Paris, another of Oriel High’s lower sixth. “We know how to spend money. If we could have a credit card, we would spend money on it. So its essential we’re getting taught now how to manage our money because otherwise we will get into more trouble than the generation above us.”

They know they’re consumerist, we know they are and yet because we are so comfortable and because we are so indebted we don’t really know what to do.