An article in the Courier mail today with some bearing on the topic.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21579659-27197,00.html

R0bert

R0bert, he forgot to mention that this generation of children were raised by the one just before who themselves were raised under direct state influence and the policies of the state knows best. Hard to blame parents for being overly liberal with their children's discipline when they were never taught different.

"I am doing my best not to smoke those filthy cigarettes though I use only filtered ones"

Ah Dickie, there ya go! Given your worry about pollution, but your
trust in nicotine filters, one cigarette filter up each nostril
might just do it for you :)

aqvarivs, can you expand on that please. Not sure if it's the Sunday morning slowness but I'm missing some of your point.

I have the impression that my own parents were raised under a much stricter regiem than I was. I've not had the opportunity to look back at what was on the bookshelves as my parents were being raised but there were no government TV add's (well no TV), from what I've been told their radios were battery driven and only used rarely. The old books I've seen around did not seem to include much government material.

My impression was that the nanny state bit for that generation was the church. I also suspect that the level of material presented was fairly minimal.

R0bert

R0bert, Children of parents from the sixties raising todays children.

Robert,
Still trying to understand your response to Fickle. Do you know anyone who survives in our modern economy without consuming at least some goods/services advertised on radio, newspapers or television? The compulsion might not be legislated but in practical terms it's very, very difficult to avoid paying, just as it's difficult to avoid paying GST. Many of us get no benefit from commercial advertising of products/services apart from listings of providers. Do you recognise the costs to taxpayers of the consequences of at least some non-government, commercial advertising? I suggest Peter give us a similar article on this issue too.
I also think the waste of taxpayers money on advertising is a scandal, but I wouldn't have been so selective as Peter about the examples.