Thursday, March 13, 2008

"Millenial's"


I’ve always considered myself a “baby boomer” even though I was born a few years before the official start of that generation. The “Greatest Generation” ended in 1924, so I can’t lay claim to that one. Generation X is from 1965 to 1982 - Not it. There really isn’t a name for us in-betweeners (except maybe “pot heads” – and I wasn’t one of those) unless you just want to call us “Tweeners” (and I don’t like the sound of that – so I’m sticking with “baby boomer” ).

The next generation of note is the “Millenial’s” – those born between 1980 and 2000. Seems to me this tag should have started with those born in 2000 – but no one asked me. Their claim to fame is that they are the Luxury generation. There’s an expectation that they deserve luxury now – it’s not something you wait for and earn. They are called the prematurely affluent generation. (I want to be them).

I’ve always wondered who was buying all the Louis Vuitton’s, Chanel’s, Gucci’s, etc. The ads in the magazines always feature extremely chic attractive young women. I thought it was their way of saying, “if you buy our products you’ll look like this.” But now I realize that what they are saying is, “if you look like this, buy our products.” That is their target demographic.

I know what you're thinking..."Only in America...." But, no. It's even bigger in China and Saudi Arabia.

What I want to know is this….who’s paying for it???? How can twenty somethings afford this lifestyle? I’m baffled.

3 comments:

Kerri Brown said...

I am a millenial, but my lifestyle is nothing like the young women wearing Gucci...

Here's my theory:

Millenials are the most coddled generation to date with "helicopter" parents who constantly "hover" over their children and are ready to swoop in at any given moment to help their children out. The parents that have the means, provide their children with many luxeries that they themselves did not have- clothes, cars, travel, etc. Those are the fortunate kids - or not so fortunate depending how you look at it.

Next, Millenials are the most indebted generation of Americans yet, entering the workforce with not only student loans, but massive credit card debt. These are the really unfortunate ones.

So, I think the majority of those millenials living the high life are either overly supported by Mom and Dad or are living way above their means and going in to debt to live that certain lifestyle.

Finally, there are those that were raised to appreciate the value of money and worked at Burger King to earn their own spending money and buy their own clothes and cars, with only some help from Mom and Dad. I think the millenials that are part of this group are the true lucky ones, and know what's really valuable in life- the things that money can't buy!

Jeri10 said...

Oooh, I like you.
Thank you for your well thought out reply. Your comment is better than my post!

Salt H2O said...

Jeri- You're funny! You know the answer to this better than anyone!