2025-01-08
15 分钟The Economist. Hi, it's Alice Su here.
I co-host Drum Tower, our weekly podcast on China.
Here's an article handpicked from the latest edition of The Economist, read out loud.
I thought you might enjoy it.
A community being built near Hilton Head Island in South Carolina quickly disabuses these.
There was a toga party this past weekend, says Lynette, a resident.
There was a live band and it was a riot.
Barbie, another of the community's ambassadors,
residents employed by the developers to help sell it to potential newcomers,
compares living there to starting college all over again.
There are, she says, drinks on the driveway, cocktails on the concrete.
If Margaritaville's residents are representative of their age cohort,
there'll be a lot more to the toga parties than fancy dress.
Whereas young people in rich countries these days are addicted to their phones,
more anxious than previous generations and far less likely than them to use mind-altering substances or to party recklessly,
their grandparents belong to a generation that experimented with sex,
drugs and rock and roll.
As they reach older age, they're not giving up their old habits.
Among those for whom times winged charities hurrying a little nearer,
drug and alcohol use, and abuse, have surged.