Members in the Media
From: The New York Times

Growing Up on Easy Street Has Its Own Dangers

The New York Times:

When Thomas Gilbert Jr. was arrested on Monday and charged with killing his wealthy father with a gunshot to the head, the rubbernecking and tut-tutting began almost immediately.

The pair had argued about financial issues in the past, according to police. Tabloid reports suggested that there had been a disagreement over the 30-year-old’s allowance before he apparently pulled the trigger.

So Twitter responded as Twitter does. He was a “trust fund kid.” The “most spoiled brat.” The whole affair was “morbidly disgusting.”

But at the same time, parents all over my own social media feeds and in out-loud discussions throughout the week were having a more searching conversation. How does it come to pass that a 30-year-old Princeton graduate still gets pocket money from his parents? What, if anything, went wrong in the way his parents raised him? And is there something about the environment that his mother and hedge-fund-running father raised him in that may have itself been damaging?

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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