To me the key point here that's been brought up a couple times is that kids can be wildly different, and one method probably won't work across the board. There's a lot of factors that can contribute to every path ending in failure here. Work ethic, drive, financial understanding, financial goals, time management, mental health, risk aversion... all these things (plus countless more) factor in to what kind of citizen we become.
As Polak said, parenting has shifted some of my ideas about kids. I used to think the whole process was a bit more scientific. Do X, get Y. Now I think every solution posed in this thread would work for a segment of the population but not all.
I recently had this very conversation with some family members. All 3 of us disagreed, and all 3 of us chose a method that was counter to how we grew up in some way. Probably a coincidence, but interesting nonetheless.
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