"If your parents buy you everything, you will never appreciate the value of money."

It has that effect to an extent. I know I'll spend money on a night out that my mates from less well off backgrounds won't, similarly my mates from better off backgrounds think little of dropping amounts I wouldn't contemplate.

If that's true it would suggest that people value money as they saw people value it when they were growing up, rather than on the basis of how much their parents spent on them personally. I'm sure those factors correlate, but they're not the same thing. If they were, you'd expect your friends from less well off backgrounds who were relatively spoiled to spend more, etc.

I was raised in relative poverty, and I'd argue that I'm worse with money, because I've never really had any money, I've spent a great deal of time being really unhappy because I can't enjoy certain things, so on the rare occasions when I actually have any money I tend to go mad. When I was a student I spent £144 on a watch I liked, just because I had never been so wealthy.

It certainly makes sense. But it doesn't mean parents shouldn't buy their kids stuff. It means don't buy your kid everything they want.

Buying young kids stuff for Christmas, birthdays, or as a treat because of e.g. good performance in school or something is a good idea. But caving in to every demand they make will definitely ensure they never appreciate the value of money - because they get pretty much everything they want when they want it. You say your parents got you stuff if it was within their means, but to me it doesn't sound like you got everything you wanted.

Buying kids cars when they're old enough is certainly a good thing and I don't see how people can complain about that - what teenager can afford a car when they pass their test? And most teenagers need cars for university and for finding work, it's not usually a luxury you can easily do without. My grandparents bought me my first car for £3000 but I paid for a new laptop out of my savings (£500 out of just over £2000).

I'd say it can have that effect, but obviously some people exaggerate it to ridiculous proportions.

Agree with the statement as well. The silver spooners will one day have to fend for themselves.

So I was on good old Facebook
"If your parents buy you everything, you will never appreciate the value of money."Discuss.

Here's an argument in favour of your friend:

1) Your parents buy you everything
2) Therefore you do not gain experience in spending.
3) No experience in spending means you do not have a memory of items and their prices unless there is some other way of acquiring it.
4) Having no memory of items and their prices means you will not be able to compare what you want to buy with what you have bought, which is a way of determining whether a price is reasonable.
5) Therefore you will lack a way of knowing whether the price of what you want is reasonable.
6) Therefore you are more likely to waste money.

Here's a counter-argument:

1) Being bought things that you want gives you the satisfaction of possessing items.
2) Possessing items allows you to do things with them.
3) Doing things, like experiment, enables you to develop skills.
4) Therefore, if you were not bought things and there is no other way of acquiring them then you would not develop skills that derive from possessing the items of your desire.

Example: If you did not own car then you would not be able to drive regularly and so would never develop that skill.

These arguments need work so if you are interested in philosophy then please help me develop them.

What if you use someone else's car and drive regularly such as a parents?