"Phone-eats-first type of food, whatever viral sweater is going around on TikTok, the new work bag," said Devin Walsh, 25, who lives in New York... listing the tempting purchases that flit across her Instagram, even, stubbornly, this past week.... [T]he draw toward prudence feels especially tricky for her generation because of the shared sense that they’re living under a cloud of incessant crisis.... "We’re more inclined to spend frivolously because of this looming main character energy of 'The world is going to end anyway,'" Ms. Walsh said....Talk about the human phenomenon of plunging into irrational, extravagant pleasures in anticipation of swiftly arriving doom.
In February, she splurged on hosting a Valentine’s Day party in her Hell’s Kitchen apartment, spending hundreds of dollars on heart-shaped sunglasses that she mounted to the wall to feel like a Sunglass Hut, a sink filled with alcohol and a new $150 heart-printed dress. “Was it a rational use of funds?” she said. “Maybe not.”...
Bonus language topic: The word "doom" originally meant statute. But then it meant "A judgement or decision, esp. one formally pronounced" (OED). The meaning that feels familiar — "Fate, lot, irrevocable destiny" — arrives around 1400. And the meaning that sounds exactly right — "Final fate, destruction, ruin, death" — is first found in a 1609 Shakespeare sonnet, Sonnet 14:
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy—
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find.But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,And, constant stars, in them I read such artAs truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.
Posts
76 comments:
Did she recycle all those sunglasses? If not, the world will end through climate change!!
'The world is going to end anyway,'"
Hahahahah!
I remember that from way back in the 70s!
Good times…
Hopefully that is just youthful poor money choices.
Man does this capture the essence of "Democrat psychology" or what?
The looming doom creates a boom for lunes.
--- T]he draw toward prudence feels especially tricky for her generation because of the shared sense that they’re living under a cloud of incessant crisis.... "We’re more inclined to spend frivolously because of this looming main character energy of 'The world is going to end anyway,'" Ms. Walsh said
She may not be wrong, but I don't know where that comes from, for a 25 year old. Or maybe I do. I'm afraid the propagators of manage-by-crisis have succeeded against normal human nature to be young and hopeful. She is certainly right in the age range of those who were hammered with climate crisis, identity crisis, and racial crisis.
So she is a single piece of the vast result. Sad.
Yet America is at the peak of enormous prosperity. Maybe it's been faked a lot, but unemployment was incredibly low, you could work from home, there are billionaires to the right of you and the left of you.....
These poor kids are in for a shock when that financial cycle ends. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, could be one more Wall Street jump somehow. Although she probably still can't buy a house even with a Mr. Walsh.
I was going to say, the degree of freedom and prosperity have been unparalleled. And too much freedom can certainly pose its problems. But the totalitarians were solving that puzzle for us, taking them away two by two, three by three.
When the cycle does turn for real, these kids will need all the resources an American can come up with. I think they can find them, still within our national character somewhere. But it will shock them for life and probably shock their children too.
We’ve just witnessed the most unequivocal "thumbs down“ of any policy proposal in modern history.
Trillions wiped off 401k plans
Bond yields up
Collapse of the dollar
Are these validators of successful policy?
Trump has added a political risk premium to US assets. US stocks carry political risk for the first time and bonds no longer act like they are truly risk-free.
That's the takeaway about the breakup of the American dollar paradigm.
Washington DC has been a borrowed-money enterprise since 2001 when it decided to finance its Empire and its multi-trillion-dollar wars across the eastern hemisphere with borrowed money. This crackup was probably inevitable. Fools always run these schemes, and in Trump they got a fool out of central casting. (A whole house full of them apparently.)
The new emerging American risk premium can be measured by one metric -- will the US be able to maintain its leadership of the 40 advanced democratic economies and maintain its American-friendly cohesion? Or do the advanced democracies split up and affiliate with other power groupings?
It is almost certain that China is going to outcompete America as the basic manufacturing and industrial power and dominate clean energy and renewable energy industries in particular in the coming years. China will dominate the populous eastern hemisphere as American suzerainty retreats under the pressure of market-priced mistrust.
When a country choses to go regional, it of course gives up the economic advantages of being international and global. Regional strength never out-benefits global scale and share.
What kind of businessman gives up market share? Dare we say a fool!
History is achieving maximum frisson.
Dear loyal democrat - all of your credit card spending during the Biden regime - is just the same.
Would Devin feel better with some historical perspective? Ours isn’t the first society and civilization to experience the unavoidable consequences of rampant sin (sin being defined as those things which cause pain to one’s self and others, and which cause societies and civilizations to decay and collapse under the weight of their multiplying burdens.) Go back 2700 years. Isaiah was writing about a day of trouble and treading down, of perplexity, and of the city walls being breached and broken. They were called to weeping, morning, and contrition. (They could reconsider and reverse their decline.) But they preferred to party, saying “let us eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we shall die.” Devin’s party reminded me of this.
(As Easter is nearing, I’ll mention the end of story for Isaiah which was that there was one anointed to whom the proper government was given, who will lead the broken city back into peace and joy. A leader given as and with a nail fastened in a sure place.)
(Nails not just in his hands but also in his wrists.)
Kakis: "It is almost certain that China is going to outcompete America as the basic manufacturing and industrial power...."
In case you had any doubt that China is his most favored nation.
There was also the Domesday Book (dome being an alternate spelling of doom) which was the survey done after the Norman conquest at the behest of William and completed in 1086. The books (there were actually 2) chronicled William’s holdings in England. The term Domesday Book started to be used in the 1100s.
Interesting to contemplate how the Left's liberation of women from marriage and children (in favor of careers) and promotion of apocalyptic Global Warming have played a huge role in the creating the debt-ridden US consumerist economy.
Where would we be, without the NYT's guides to 'today's new popular obsession that you should totally feel like you're missing out on'.
I enjoy going to NYC about once every 20 years, and although I mostly enjoy it, I also get thoroughly sick of it after about 3 or 4 days. You have to strap on so many filters that pretty soon, everything sounds muffled and looks grimy.
This feeling that you are "... living under a cloud of incessant crisis" is the product of a culture that competes to create and sustain crises.
You can get out from living under that cloud with appropriate doses of skepticism and historical perspective.
We're in the age of truly childlike adults, young adults and boomers alike, indulging their whims before their needs, relying on "big daddy" to bail them out.
These childlike adults have little perspective beyond their half-baked progressive political values, clutch their Apple phones without realization oppressed underpaid Chinese workers built those electronics in slave-like conditions. New York Magazine recently did article on New Yorkers still relying on handouts and subsidies from their parents, to pay for accruements of their faux upper-middle income lifestyle, 30-somethings subsidized by boomer parents, boomer parents subsidized by their truly aged parents, all in effort to "keep up with Jones" in high-end fashion.
Oh, yeah, I didn't get to that main character energy business. Not sure I've heard it used like that. Checked an online definition, "embrace their uniqueness and take control of their narrative in a positive way."
Take control of your narrative! Too funny. Like worrying about your legacy. I would say, put down the phony baloney and try llving, not fancying. She and "her generation" may be surprised by how good it can be. Or maybe they can't, sucks to be them.
Trump excludes smartphones from reciprocal tariffs ~ CNBC
"Tech including routers and selected computers get reprieve after a week of turbulence in US markets"
Wait a minute -- it’s the "raping/cheating other counties" that will have to pay the tariffs, so what’s the problem?
Blinking. Albeit slowly.
If there was ever a single item that encapsulates the political cost of this tariff debacle in layman’s terms, it is the smartphone. From the risible calculation and the inclusion of uninhabited islands, everything about this whole sorry episodes exposes that the Trump team are not just incompetent, they are also really lazy. They even had the benefit of seeing the Truss fiasco play out and they still went ahead with the most superficial and naive justification.
Pessimism is un-American. I love America!
Maybe not
Spend faster, grasshoppers. It'll solve allllll your problems.
Anyone who says we don't manufacture anything in the US is nuts.
The Crisis Manufacturing effort alone.....
“Prosperity breeds idiots.”
---Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"...[China] dominate clean energy and renewable energy industries in particular in the coming years" They're welcome to it. It's an inefficient, economically unsound, and dying industry. And China's actual commitment to renewables is most clearly shown buy the fact that the only sell that illusion abroad. At home, they are all in on fossil fuels. Maybe it's because a wind and solar weaken their enemies power grids and economies.
Looming doom is a handmade tale? A spun story following the NYT style guide.
China's commitment to coal and nuclear. They can't afford to spread the Green blight.
Well, that's queer, but it's NYT. Fate, weird sisters.
The rage-filled power=obsessed left, are desperate for USA failure. Even if it means their own.
that's how they role... er I mean roll.
She'd be happier if she could acquire some Big Dick Energy.
The Althouse guidance was, comment on the human propensity to party irrationally before the end times.
Not sure Devin Walsh's explanation for herself is true. I am not sure that that's what she's doing. I think, as others point out, that young people lack wealth yet prices are sky-high all around. So her party and whatever else are gestures of trying to belong to, and participate in, the devilish fashions of the day, which certain still embody extravagance (despite nods here and there to prudence).
But she has no wealth, I assume; going by the excerpt. So I think her self-image is off. I think she just wants to spend the money and look extravagant and she is rationalizing it in that particular way. It's the social pressure, it's the coming doom, it's, yanno, like, I just wanna do this, right!
Ampersand, you can also get out from under that by engaging in real productive work, or being of concrete service to others.
My sense of the current crop of 25-35 urban "thought leaders" and their followers, is that they spend far too much time stewing in their own brains. Time spent on social media is even worse.
The Market is evolutionary (i.e. chaotic) reflects its Anthropogenic Intelligence (AI) underpinning and empathetic enterprise amidst a propensity of climate change.
Lifestyle stories in the NYT reinforce the idea that we are two countries -- and the Great Divide seems to be whether we can or will spend $150 on sunglasses or an article of clothing.
Impulse buying can be a response to depression or anxiety. It's shopping therapy. It can be a response to economic or political uncertainty, but assuming that people weren't as uncertain, or as depressed, or as anxious with Biden in the White House would be a mistake. Besides, people have enough ups and downs in their own lives even without following the stock market.
Not IL Res: "New York Magazine recently did article on New Yorkers still relying on handouts and subsidies from their parents, to pay for accruements of their faux upper-middle income lifestyle, "
Yes, the cities have become mostly for the very rich and the very poor. The working class, or even the starting-out members of the professional class, can't find affordable housing. Compare to 1970s NYC when there were places for creatives like Blondie and Talking Heads, and hardhats like Archie Bunker, to live affordably.
Most of this can be laid at the feet of the Dems. Open immigration cut the wages of the working class and turned their neighborhoods into monocultural slums. There are some nice working-class neighborhoods where houses are cheap, but an Anglo settler might not be treated so well there. Regulation keeps the housing supply tight. Depolicing makes the city uninhabitable unless you can afford to Uber from door to door everywhere you go - and even then, it's a crapshoot. If you have a work truck with the means of your livelihood in it, you have to worry about break-ins whenver you leave it unattended. The decline of public schools kicked out the ladder immigrants used to depend on for generational improvement. Etc. Etc.
Immigrants who may not even intend to stay here permanently can take all these risks because even a partial return is beyond their wildest dreams in the old country. Their dependents may still be in the old country, where a few bucks will keep them way above average. People born here, with dependents here, need more money. They can't take the risks immigrants take, because they have no old country to go back to.
So if you want to live in Manhattan as a young professional, you either have to turn a tiny apartment into a bunkhouse for yourself and three friends, or you need mum's or gran's money. Similar stories in other center cities.
JSM
Every statute is of doom
DOOM on a toothbrush
Yes, I, too, think this is a woman-meets-reality moment. When you're thirty (or close), when your smartphone loves fade into pixels, when April really is the cruelest month. The guys, of course, are sick of women like her and merciless about her ageing. But when someone goes beyond "I feel bad" into "doom hangs above us all," isn't she really a Seeker so lost she doesn't even know she is seeking? Such people used to densely populate the humanities departments at US universities, looking through history, philosophy and literature for answers - people like Marianne Faithful as we now understand her life story. Now they get sunglasses, well, that won't work. If Ms. Sunglass Kiosk of 2025 finds an answer, she won't be invited to share her further exploration of reality in the NYT of some future date, If she jumps to death or life, whichever, she'll simply disappear.
Trump is POTUS, so everything stinks, and we're all doomed. Only a few months ago, it was "happy days are here again". The MSM/Hollywood propaganda machine in action.
The world according to the MSM/Hollywood:
Remember how happy we were under obama and Biden? The Republicans were pouncing and falsely claiming their was "inflation" but that was just their imagination. Everything was great. We had law and order, decency and humanity, Democracy was riding high. An ethical Government that was competent.
But now its the 1930s all over again. Russia Loving Trump trying to give us Putin style authoritarianism and rule by Billionaires.
No wonder everyone is unhappy.
The word "doom" originally meant statute. But then it meant "A judgement or decision, esp. one formally pronounced"
Interesting etymology of "doom" . "Dom" in Norwegian means a judicial decision. Yet another cognate.
Can’t fix stupid.
Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it's doom alone that counts
Well, I bought a lot of ammunition during the Biden years, so I really can’t criticize….
It's the Fruit of the Doom.
Kaka said:
"It is almost certain that China is going to outcompete America as the basic manufacturing and industrial power and dominate clean energy and renewable energy industries in particular in the coming years."
***************
Oh really? RIGHT NOW China is much more dependent on exports than the US is. RIGHT NOW we are becoming energy-independent, while China has to import all its oil and gas. RIGHT NOW China's one-child policy is biting them on the ass, bigly, resulting in their former labor advantage gradually going away. RIGHT NOW China's supply lines are a lot longer and more expensive than ours. RIGHT NOW China's yuan currency has dropped by 18% , to the lowest since 2007.
As for clean energy and renewables, the Paris Accords are dead, and the Green Nude Eel is tits-up in the US. China's exports in those sectors are bound to decline dramatically when no one wants to import equipment proven to be very expensive, and "not fit for purpose" of providing reliable power.
And finally: funny, innit, how this economic Juggernaut wastes billions of dollars constructing whole cities of high-rises no one lives in, and then has to demolish them 15 at a time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6b0_ffyFQ
Pure economic genius!!!
If you really thought that there was an impending economic doom, you wouldn’t do this.
But then, these people are pretty stupid so maybe they would.
Kakatrophe.
Guys and gals just want the real deal, not this phony baloney.
Take an old thing, give it a new name, call that a new thing, and get an article in the Times.
Plus an Althouse link. Winning!
Just attended a community meeting where the progressive boomers and college-educated young adults were promoting "sidewalk art" for "street beautification" for "enhanced street bike-riding in our small city. Meanwhile, our small city hall officials are approving half-billion in TIF projects for a city operating on a $20 million annual budget, neither the officials nor the citizenry realizes the huge huge financial risks city hall is blissfully embracing. It's another example of how American society is failing its citizens, how local, state and federal government is truly failing its constituents, and how we all merrily whistle to financial collapse of American economy.
But every last person seems to have a I-phone, including the persons at the warming shelter.
YouTube: Dr Doom is an enigma
Wow. My wife knows how to squander money now and then, but not a thousand bucks for a Valentine's day party.
The girl who threw the Valentine 's Day Party works in marketing. She definitely knows how to make a big, splashy gesture. Bud Light should hire her. Maybe she can bring back the brand. Or maybe she'll marry someone rich. That kind of extravagance attracts wealth.......I'm money dysmorphic. Over the Thanksgiving Weekend, when the market set new highs, I wanted to do something self indulgent to celebrate. I went to Lululemon to buy something to wear to the gym. I saw a t-shirt on sale for fifty dollars. I couldn't do it. There's just no way I could buy a t-shirt for fifty bucks. I did buy a slice of pie at a nearby bakery that cost eight dollars. That was kind of decadent.
Half century ago, I had a policy of buying a new piece of furniture, serving pieces, or artwork for every party I threw. I love parties and they gave me motivation for furnishing my place.
Anyhow, the good news is that the girl isn't sitting around alone and is inviting people to share her private space. Isn't that healthy? Also, YouTube is full of videos of people decorating with Dollar Store stuff. isn't tic-tok? We are talking about the NYT! Watch me roll my eyes. Of course they are going to pick the example to fit their doom and gloom narrative!
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.
Nobody ever said to him, "Bill, that one might be over the top," did they.
I believe a couple of centuries went by before people started needing the assistance of a gloss to read Shakespeare. Devin Walsh has managed the feat in real time.
Can someone interpret that 3rd from last line: "If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;"?
"If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;"
If she took her personal truth and beauty and turned it into a physical substance that could be stored in a warehouse. It needs the part before to understand it, since it refers to it. At least that's how I read it, not sure what Grok would say.
But I am sorry, it sounds like Eddie Haskell simping for Wally's mom, to me anyway.
I have no taste but a cracking designer wardrobe, at least half new, including a bespoke Kenneth Cole suit dress from a runway with matching boots, and new silk men's pajamas, all worth a whole lot of money, all from thrift stores, mainly sourced from a friend who does costume and set design. I do buy new underwear, hose, socks, sneakers for us, of course. Rich bored people donate clothes they've never worn and go buy more. My husband has 50 ties, all designer (that's how much the tie rack holds). They were a buck a piece. When one gets worn, I use it for paint projects and pick up another one. Lots of museum ties I found one day that were still in their boxes, probably gifts, and even a few Trump ties. Jones New York, Alfani, Brooks Brothers, Armani suits. I finally have my husband dressing Wasp Guido, wifebeater, good shoes, and all. All for pennies on the dollar. Gorgeous sweaters, Irish and British, some home-made. High-quality wool coats from Europe. I'd stroke out if I bought even one of these in a department store.
I let him pick up the occasional Carhart from the feed and seed. Nobody ever donates those. Tells you something.
I don't understand the people in the article at all. I went to a then-Great Books college that cost $1500 a semester (with work study and scholarships). I worked several part-time jobs and still had time to absorb it all. My parents couldn't afford more. I didn't need for anything, and the work taught me as much as academia.
All that is gone now. It's not like I worked in a coal mine. Many of my community college students were tough country or urban kids who knew the value of education. Many of my private school kids were utter princesses whose daddies somehow found my number and called my house to yell at me (thanks, Emory).
Elite schools have destroyed several generations of young people. They're helpless and apocalyptic yet well-off. Who spends hundreds on party decorations? We spent $2,000 on our entire wedding for 100 people and cooked the food ourselves. And it was damn good. Three kinds of pasta sauce, one entirely from my garden.
"Can someone interpret that 3rd from last line: "If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;"?"
I looked it up for you - he want's her to turn on the baby machine.
Kaki said: US stocks carry political risk for the first time and bonds no longer act like they are truly risk-free.
Hardly the FIRST time. Take a breath. Stocks have always had political risk with not just actions at home (in the US) but also swinging and swaying with every little move overseas. Stocks also tumble, fall, rise, based on the actions of the Company itself. See Budweiser for instance.
Bonds have never ever been risk free. Some bonds are considered less risky than others, but that also changes with circumstances, terms, call dates, maturities, what backing the bonds have, interest rates, strength of the company. Bonds also carry political risk.
I'm willing to acknowledge when blame is credited....and much of the swings in the market are persuaded by the political actions of Trump/the US President, Congress, etc....but not for everything and not alone when you consider that the actions of the rest of the world also affect.
That is part of the challenge of being an analyst or financial advisor, political world actions, Fed Reserve, idiot laws by Country, County, City, other countries. Paying attention and trying to put the pieces together.
Dems to reflexively blame everything on Trump is really getting tedious. Not only is it tedious, boring and annoying....it destroys any shred of credibility that you may have had.
“What kind of businessman gives up market share? Dare we say a fool!“
A smart businessman today will give up gladly the fraction of his market share that he is loosing money on because they are complainers who can’t produce anything useful and think that bitching to their suppliers and customers is the way to be successful.
I am happier and happier to get rid of a bad customer today.
"Phone-eats-first“
Ha, yes you have to pay the phone bill before you buy food. Can’t let the phone go hungry. Can’t be out of the conversation while you sit in an alcohol soaked club with real people sitting around you.
“ We’re more inclined to spend frivolously because of this looming main character energy of 'The world is going to end anyway …”
Frivolous shopping as a primary female sexual characteristic is sufficient explanation all on its own.
Generation S-obriety. Welcome back.
OMG the stock market. I thought that only went up - year after year. You mean it can go down? I don't believe. It must be Trump's fault!
[T]he draw toward prudence feels especially tricky for her generation because of the shared sense that they’re living under a cloud of incessant crisis....
If one were to ask every human currently living on the planet and all those who have come before in the history of mankind if they would be willing to trade places with "her generation" or reply "No, I'm good", which response do you think would prevail?
These people don’t know the meaning of the word “poor.” They are offensive.
The solution to this has been known to humanity for eons. Sell everything you have and give the money to your cult leader, who will take you to the top of a hill on December 31 to await the dawn of a fun new age.
Eons may be an exaggeration, perhaps 25,000 years max.
"I let him pick up the occasional Carhart from the feed and seed. Nobody ever donates those. Tells you something."
You don't donate Carhart. You wear it out.
Save it up for a rainy day.
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