You blink and they're already millionaires

Steven Levy, a columnist for the Washington Post, reports the phenomenon of start-up kids becoming millionaires or even billionaires. A 24-year old kid made his money starting up Auctomatic, a web-based helper that automates the chores of running auctions for power-sellers on eBay.

The Auctomatic story is a parable of the Internet's start-up culture, where it's cheap to begin companies, possible to become a billionaire and fairly common to bail out as a millionaire -- all before you're barely old enough to shave.

Even in the growing popularity of reality TV, Paris Hilton, and prescription drug abuse, it looks like our youth might be pretty darn capable.