"Jason" is 13 and lives in a molly-mo suburb like Kaysville or Pleasant Grove. Like any good mo kid, he attends "scouts" every wed. night down at the church. As we all know, half of those nights he and the other boys are just running around and/or playing basketball. Their scout leaders don't really care, and will leniently pass the boys off on various merit badge and advancement requirements. Needless to say, the time spent at scouts could be better spent in a real scout troop, or in another group like 4-H, or focusing on school work. You know, activities that could really contribute to personal growth and community betterment.

Starting in 9th grade, Jason will do 4 years of worthless release-time seminary classes. All that time sitting in seminary could be spent getting vocational training at the nearby ATC, but of course that isn't as important to Jason's parents, who want him to graduate from seminary more than they want him to graduate with a solid, basic understanding of calculus.

After high school, he'll do grunt work for his uncle's construction company until he leaves for his two-year rite of passage into mormon manhood: the mission. While other able-bodied youth join the military or the peace corps, Jason will be pressured to use lame sales techniques to get people to join TSCC. He might be pretty miserable the whole time, but his RM status will make it all worth it.

He'll come home and move to Logan or Provo for school. Even though he's 21, he still has no real work background or education. He'll probably end up working part-time in a call center for $9/hr. Before he's even done with his first year of school, he'll get engaged to "Jenna," who's as unprepared for marriage as he is.

Depending on how soon they have kids, the next several years of Jason's life will be timultuous as he balances work, school and family. But that tumult will make him emotionally reliant on TSCC, to whom he'll pay 10% of whatever he earns. For the rest of his life, he'll continue paying that 10% to TSCC who will in turn use it to build up it's massive real estate holdings. That's money that won't go to the local arts center, the Red Cross, or local eateries and other businesses.

Of course the lifetime spent filling callings will mean less or no time for the Rotary club, city council meetings, and hours volunteered at the senior citizens center.

Take a majority of Jasons living in a given community, and this means a dearth of civic involvement and cultural amenities. And of course Jason and Jenna's kids will be raised to perpetuate the cycle.

lather, rinse, repeat

The only thing I disagree with is the judgment about scouting. There are a lot of leaders in Mormon troops who try very hard to really do a good job with their scouts on a freakishly limited budget. They go for all the extra training, earn the adult awards and chip in their own money when the church funds run out. The only problem is that these people are often pulled out of scouting to fulfill other callings, instead of allowing people to serve where their interests and talents lie. And yes, even the best efforts of Mormon scout leaders do fall short sometimes because of uninterested kids and parent who are forced to participate and terribly limited budgets. And yes, sometimes people are called who couldn't care less and behave exactly as you describe. But I've seen too many scout leaders who are doing a good job to say all Mormon troops are a complete write-off.