Opinion: Teens can't rely on the parental pound

Yet it also rings so true. There are, of course, the other three out of four who, presumably, get by on some more traditional allocation of pocket money or an allowance, or do a variety of part-time jobs to generate some income. Paradoxically, when those young people do find ways of earning money, we often express concern about the appallingly low wages they usually receive, or the health-and-safety issues at stake, or the detrimental effect this may have on their education.

It is 50 years since Mark Abrams wrote The Teenage Consumer, heralding the emergence of British youth culture as a result of the new-found affluence of young people. TR Fyvel, in The Insecure Offenders, asked how young people were going to "cope" with the new opportunities that lay before them. Now we have an even more profoundly acquisitive and consumer society, but for many young people those opportunities are diminished. There are no longer decent jobs for minimum-age school-leavers and those pursuing further and higher education are burdened with increasing amounts of debt.