I understand your point, but I don't think the lesson can ever be completely clear when physical harm or the threat of harm is involved. Let's assume you're right, and the child learns that when she doesn't listen to Dad then bad things happen. How does that lesson translate into the rest of her life? Does she internalize responsibility for taking care of where she lives? Does she learn to obey the voice of authority simply because it is the authority? Does she simply internalize that she should do what Dad says because he says? I spent some time in a school system in another country where corporal punishment was quite common and often very brutal. I would say that overall the children there were slightly better behaved than their American peers (only slightly) and that they were considerably less adept at thinking for themselves. Their idea of learning was listening to what the teacher told them and memorizing it. That idea stays with many of them throughout their entire education. The change in parenting and discipline culture is new, I agree, and it's easy to assume that if things were done a certain way for a very long time then the results must not be all that bad. Maybe for the average kid they are not, because most kids have supportive, loving families or are simply a lot more resilient than we often give them credit for being.