US GOVERNMENT

Is this a question?

It appears to be a fill in the blank type of homework/test.

playing football?

Huffing jenkem?

The question indicates a very narrowly structured history curriculum, in which the instructor expects to be fed an answer which was embodied in class lectures. That would be, of course, no problem for those who bothered to take notes in class.

In order to secure the ratification of the constitution in southern, slave-holding states, there was a compromise which is known in American history as the three-fifths compromise. For purposes of determining populations to be represented in the House of Representatives, the total number of whites was determined by a census. Indians--aboriginal Americans--who paid no taxes were not counted. I believe Mr. Madison suggested the compromise, which states:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

When the word Persons (capitalized) appears in the constitution, it is a reference to slaves. Those bound to service for a term of years refers to indentured servitude and was later interpreted to refer to imprisoned convicts as well. Several northern states were unhappy with this, so a limit was imposed on the slave trade. Article One, Section Nine details limits imposed on Congress, and the first paragraph of that section reads, in its entirety:

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

In the 1790s, various acts were passed restricting the activities of citizens in the slave trade, and in 1807, Congress passed legislation enabling the cessation of the slave trade to be effective January 1st, 1808.

I know it's distressingly like work, but perhaps you could read this and cobble together an acceptable answer.

... playing a best of 7 beer pong challenge.

I understand that in Britain, even prestigious institutions like Cambridge University are having to provide laptops for candidates to take entrance tests, mainly because a significant fraction of young people are unable to complete the tests in the time allotted using pen and paper. Handwriting is a dying skill.

Which led to the Missouri Compromise.

We do increasingly see a culture in which they young whine about being obliged to do anything difficult, and are then catered to. In recent years:

. . . asked what time it was while speaking to someone else, I reached into my watch pocket and pulled out my pocket watch, showing it to the young man--who asked me again, flushing with embarrassment, and I realized he was unable to read an analog watch or clock;

. . . I went into a burger joint and ordered six burgers for my friend and I to eat (they're small), but I unfortunately asked for "a half dozen." It took several minutes before the joker behind the counter finally asked me: "how many is that, fifteen?"

. . . on occasions too numerous to recall, I have been asked by young people to read a note they had received which was in "long hand," rather than printed, and they could not read it;

. . . on occasions too numerous to recall, I have been asked by young people for help with numbers, in situations which demonstrated that they don't know the multiplication tables;

. . . I have returned money to young cashiers who have given me too much change. The most egregious occasion was when I was returned sixteen dollars and change on a thirteen dollar and change purchase, having proffered a twenty dollar bill; explaining that I had not given her thirty dollar bill, I got a blank look and spent several minutes explaining to her that she had given me too much change;

. . . times too numerous to recall, I have seen quick-change con men trying to run their con, and have spoken up time and again, saying to the cashier--it's not his money, close your cash drawer and call the manager--usually it was futile, and the glaring con man ran out the door with the store's money.

I think I am approached (and I assume others of my generation) because these young people understand intuitively that earlier generations were taught these things. Not all is dark, though. I once worked in a shoe store while looking for a real job. One day, a woman approached me holding pink women's pumps about four sizes too big for her, and a little girl's pink handbag, asking me if I thought they matched. I immediately dropped the box I was holding, and hurried to the cash register, where a teen-aged, black single mother was working. As I arrived, she was saying to the man: "No, it's not your money, I gave you your change." The quick-change con man hurried out, followed closely by the woman with odd taste in shoes and handbags. I congratulated the young woman, and then explained the con he was trying to run. She was so incensed, that I had to forbid her from leaving the store--she was going to hunt him down and slap the snot out of him. She kept saying: "He thought I was stupid, didn't he!" I hope for his sake that she never found him.

This was attributed to Socrates by Plato (circa 450 B.C.)

Old people have been criticizing the children of their generation for thousands of years.

Christmas.