Childhood! Certainly I think that childhood is the happiest time of our lifes. Being an adult I can see that many kids are not being raised in the proper environment. However, the kids may see it in a different colour. To support my point of view I'd like to tell a story about my chinese language teacher. She was born in China in 1960s. The perioud of the "Giant Leap" policy in China was on the go when she was a little girl. History proves that it was a terrible economic collapse when more than 60 million people died (unofficial data), but she remebers it as a best perioud in her life. Our teacher told how happy she was when they, little kids, were sent to collect bugs in the collective field and the way her mother fixed her worn out clothes. She told that people were proud to wear old clothes and some of them even made holes in new pants so that it looked used. She compared it with modern concecutive consumption, senceless race for more and more fashionable clothes. Thus, I think it doesn't really matter what was your childhood, but what you see it and feel it does. Just like a life for grown up people. If you are trapped in sadnes of your thoughts you will never be able to be happy no matter how much money and status you have. However, we shouldn't forget that kids are our future and the enviroment where they've been rased forms kids' personalities. Its in our interest to make it best possible, because if we raise selfish or sick younger generation they will not pay us any respect or retirement money when we get old and weak.