Quote Originally Posted by Argyle_Darkheart View Post
I'm with Garotte14 on this one. The self-esteem movement was a tremendous failure, the way I see it; it breeds complacency and self-entitlement.
Actually; there are many modern theories that the self-esteem movement actually did the opposite of what you describe. Around their early to mid teens, the younger generation began to understand that the praise they were given was meaningless, and thus made them unable to distinguish what contributions they were making to their environment were meaningful or not.

This, coupled with being raised into a failing economy, destroyed their self-esteem and thus their motivation to do much, lacking both a sense of worth in their work both psychologically (through comprehensible esteem feedback,) and materially (through the majority of modern wage labor being literally incapable of meeting the US' own bare minimum fair rent requirements.)