Kids these days

When I was little people treated me a bit like I was insignificant. I mean I got birthday parties and Christmas presents but if I was watching TV and an adult wanted to know what the baseball score was they would just change the channel on me. If my aunts and uncles were all sitting around the table having coffee and talking and I interuppted because I wanted one of them to play checkers with me, they would have looked at me like I had 3 heads, as if to say "Don't you know you're a CHILD? You don't speak unless spoken to." Now kids tell YOU what they want, they scream if they don't get to sit down when they want to, talk when they want, watch The Wizard of Oz 600 times when they want to. And to stop this screaming --- which could very often peel paint right off the walls -- adults very often hit the rewind button and let them watch The Wizard of Oz again. Obviously, I am speaking about specific children I know, children I would rather not name because they are related to me and I truly love them. But jeez they're bratty.
I wonder which method of child rearing is better. Sure, my generation was taught to value politeness. It was more important to my mother that I kiss my smelly step-grandfather and say "thank you" when he gave me $5 than that I have the ability to express my feelings about him. It was more important to her that I become a respectful member of society who knows when and where to express my opinions. (She wasn't entirely successful in this pursuit because I'm a raving bitch a lot of the time now, let me tell you, but still that was her goal.)
These kids today might not have that but they are certainly more confident than we were, more certain of their place in the world, more sure of the fact that they have a RIGHT to want to play checkers RIGHT NOW, they have a RIGHT to interuppt you while you are on the phone, they have a RIGHT to scream in public because you won't buy them ice cream. Because of this they might have better jobs, better spouses, better lives than people who were raised like me will. But I am not sure I will want to know them and that worries me.
Anyway, I'm not a parent so I have no idea how hard it must be to raise one of these little evil minions. I really like kids -- I just don't like their parents. I think they're lazy and want to find the path of least resistance. Which -- as one of the laziest people on the planet -- I might find myself doing someday as well. But I certainly hope not.