I think the young are exploited more than they are helped. The way society celebrates youth doesn't do them any favors it only makes adults value them for the wrong reasons and it gives them a false sense of confidence because they'll only be young for a short time. It sexualizes the young and inflates their looks but it does not offer young people anything useful to allow them start families of their own which other countries do like free education and free health care. Salaries are low and rent in college towns is very expensive. Health insurance and car insurance is not made affordable for young people just starting out so you end up with many cutting costs and having to worry about being arrested for driving to their jobs or dying if they get sick or have some genetic condition that requires regular check ups. That doesn't sound like a situation in a country that worships youth.
It happens to older people as well but at least they were given a chance to prepare, a lot of young people are thrown into poverty the day they turn 18 and they never climb out. Many people in their early twenties suicide because of financial reasons and even of those that make it to a good career many turn to drugs to cope with their unhappy lives. I think when the hippies were getting high it was for very different reasons.
While that may be true, young celebrities taunt young people stuck in menial jobs with a life they don't have access to unless they are both rich and good looking, what good is that? It's also true that girls in school prostitute themselves to older men who could be their grandfathers. It's really not easy to be the average working class young person in America.
