British Teens Spend Sweetly

A recent survey of British teenagers' spending habits means good news for the sugar industry, but bad news for teens' teeth. UK teenagers spend 524 million pound each year on sweets, snacks, ice cream and soft drinks.

Where do they get the money? The Carrick James annual survey reports that pocket money, an allowance given by parents, usually in return for household chores, accounts for a small percentage of what young people spend. At age thirteen and fourteen, as many as one out of every four have a regular part-time job to earn extra money. By age fifteen to seventeen, average incomes are 20 pounds per week. Half of these teenagers hold part-time jobs, and fewer than half get pocket money from their parents. Those who still do are given between 2.50 and 5 pounds each week.

But while British teens are buying the latest issue of "The Face" or the latest "Talking Heads" record, they also manage t-o save quite a lot. Half of the fifteen to seventeen-year-olds surveyed say they save about 10 pounds per month. One out of every ten say they save at least 30 pounds.

Do you hold a part-time job? If so, do you save any of it? And would you admit, like seventy-five per cent of those questioned in the survey, to frequent spending on chewing gum, chocolate, and fizzy drinks? To keep you healthy, perhaps it's time governments banned the sale of sweets to people under the age of eighteen and printed the following public health warning on each packet: "Danger! Sugar can damageyour teeth and may cause ache!"

Assignment:

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