The not wearing coats/appropriate cold weather gear seems to be a phenomenon that is fairly recent (last 10 years or so). I used to think that the parents were terrible by not sending their kids with coats, etc. when I taught at the middle school level, but then I realized they all ditched their coats somewhere after they left the house. Every day I go to my internship, I drive by a kid (younger teen) who is standing in his driveway waiting for the bus. Every day he is wearing shorts and a bulky sweatshirt. His legs are often bright red! It has to hurt, when it's 5 F out.
My kids never fought me on the coat issue; the younger one developed Raynaud's over the years and until he had his experimental surgery that cured it, he constantly was searching for good gloves. The other one just accepted the fact that you wear a coat in the winter. Maybe it came from living in AZ and when we got here, they felt cold!
I agree, we are raising a bunch of wusses and it's the parents fault.