J.C. Pan explains (in The New Republic):
In this bleak new landscape, strivers haven’t disappeared—they have simply reoriented themselves around a new set of values that bolster their class position in less noticeable ways...
This new elite is typified by the brownstone-dweller traipsing through Whole Foods with a yoga mat peeping from the top of her NPR tote; the new Prospect Heights mother who stops in at the lactation consultant before her Y7 class; the tech startup employee with the neatly trimmed beard and Everlane button-down who announces on Facebook that he’s “bumping the new Kendrick.” They buy green cleaning products, ethically made clothes, and small-batch everything. They aspire, says [public policy scholar Elizabeth] Currid-Halkett, “to be their version of better humans in all aspects of their lives.”...
The suggested term is the "aspirational class."
It encompasses both the well-off partner in the law firm and the liberal arts school graduate working as an unpaid publishing intern, so long as both know to consume the same organic farmers market berries, discuss the latest Rachel Maddow segment, and quote lines from the musical Hamilton....
[M]embers of this elite often come to view their station in life as ethical and deserved, unaware of the ways in which their spending patterns exacerbate class stratification.... “Quite frankly,” writes [economist Tyler] Cowen, “those are parts of America where people feel very good about themselves.”...
[Hillary] Clinton’s was a campaign tailor-made for and by the aspirational class... But it was the Democrats’ pitiful rejoinder to Trump that could serve as a mantra for the complacent class: “America is already great.”
So... the people who 3 decades ago would have been crass strivers in danger of seeing how hateful and hollow they were are now softly mellowed and well-cushioned with self-love and only troubled by how horrible
those other people are.
Posts
78 comments:
The academic poseur Left criticizing many hipsters/post-hipsters for not being pure enough for 'late capitalism?'
It started with organic produce, it seems to end with working the community tractor.
The yuppies are now in their 60s. Guess we need to give the people now on their 30s who are equivalent to the 80s yuppies a new name.
"Aspirational class"? They were already named seventeen years ago -- they're the Bobos, thanks.
So you read the article and yuppies have become hipsters. Things don't really change.
The other thing is to the media It isn't what you do that makes you a good person it is who you vote for.
Theory of the Leisure Class" is discussed in the linked article, with his time compared to ours.
The thing that annoys me about the sort of people described here is their tendency to be a bit self righteous and preachy. Live your life the way you want to but please don't presume to tell me how I should live mine. I'm afflicted with reactance, so even if you're telling me how to better myself for what you believe must be the purest of reasons (noblesse oblige or whatever) my natural instincts is to tell you to go %&^% yourself.
"America is already great"
If you get paid $600K for a one hour speech, and can freely commit crimes with no fear at all of prosecution... then you would understandably say: "America is already great. For me."
I know young urban professionals who are--gasp!--political conservatives and to whom NPR is anathema. A lot depends on their profession. Doctors tend more toward conservatism. This identity stereotyping is appalling. And living in 'brownstones' is a northeast phenomenon that doesn't apply to the west coast. Geographic stereotyping.
Die, aspirational class scum.
Everyone needs their deplorables as a convenient foil to demonstrate their own superiority, it seems. Stereotypes serve a purpose, and aren't entirely fake news to boot.
Plus ça change....
Mais oui. Materialism was identifiable with Yuppies but it was vanity and self-centeredness that defined them.
Virtue signaling is the new materialism.
“bumping the new Kendrick.”?
Is this that sex-robot stuff you've been on about lately?
“bumping the new Kendrick.”?
That does not mean what I thought it meant...
Bohemian poverty means letting Millennials take all medals for participation. Political media doesn’t like these poverty-vows because yuppies aren’t whore-Tweeting back.
Media addiction is the fastest way to die of consumption.
Respecting our elders, Epicurean Queen has everyone trumped: gin, Dubonnet, lemon, ice, chocolate, wine, dry gin martini, Campagne.
Why should a real Queen bother Tweeting when all the best conversations owe to drinking, eating, and the doctrine of internal relations?
Poof! gone ...
"And, if Providence ever drops in my lap another chance like that ... I may have radio malfunction again." ~ Brigadier General Frank Savage
Aspirational Class just doesn't roll off of tongue nor match well the the descriptions given, might I suggest [as a more apt nomenclature] "pretentious asshat"?
Also, "[M]embers of this elite", really? Says who? Themselves? See my suggested nomenclature above...
Clinton’s was a campaign tailor-made for and by the aspirational class...
Are we still trying to white wash Clinton? I haven't looked, but I'll guess this was an article written by a woman, and published in a magazine with the cover teaser "Eat Cake and lose 10 pounds".
They were always "cushioned with self-love" and "troubled" by the horrible, deplorable Others.
How about "Yumps" - Young Ego-Maniacal Progressives? (They often aren't young, but not all Yuppies were either.)
Every single "green" cleaning product I've ever tried has sucked in comparison to the old standbys like Spic 'n Span, Tide, Ajax and so on...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
From personal experience, I can attest that the one thing they won't do is turn off the light in a room they won't be returning to for quite a while. That seems to be a bridge too far.
cubanbob said...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
8/2/17, 11:37 AM
i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living.
Don't have them in my little town, which is pretty much WHY I live in my little town.
Media addiction is the fastest way to die of consumption.
Well said, Feste!
Sometimes I skim Althouse comments without paying attention to the author. And then I blunder into a Feste comment and become concerned that I'm having a stroke.
"Y7 class"
"aspirational class"
Is the latter where they learn to suck food into their lungs?
[f]NYT: "White Economic Privilege Is Alive and Well"
The suggested term is the "aspirational class."
Better yet: the exasperating class.
cubanbob said...
these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug.
Smugsters.
If we need a name to replace yuppie, aspirational class won't do. I volunteer:
(1) asses - aspirationally self-satisfied.
(2) alt-yuppie - unfortunately the alt brand has been confused.
(3) yappie - young aspirational professional.
Hipster won't do. The slacker Ethan-Hawke-in-Reality-Bites-type evolved into hipsters. But what did the yuppie Ben-Stiller-character-type evolve into? Althouse could conduct a poll, but I predict Althouseland would vote for yappie.
Words mean what we need them to mean. No more. No less.
Much of the political class, both in the US and Europe are dinks. (double income no kids)
they really truly do not understand us deplorables.
"So you read the article and yuppies have become hipsters. Things don't really change."
I've been calling these folks Yupsters ever since they invaded my former city about a decade ago.
" Ficta said...
Sometimes I skim Althouse comments without paying attention to the author. And then I blunder into a Feste comment and become concerned that I'm having a stroke."
Thank you. I was trying to think of how to describe it. Not a knock on Feste but if you're going to comment wouldn't you strive for a little clarity? I felt the same way about PB. Hard enough to be a Lefty on Althouse. Does incoherence further your cause?
"Hipster won't do. The slacker Ethan-Hawke-in-Reality-Bites-type evolved into hipsters. But what did the yuppie Ben-Stiller-character-type evolve into?"
What happened where I live is that the 30-somethings invaded during the time when hipsters were in their 20s. My new neighbors had money and wanted to be trendy, so they took on some of the aspects of the hipster veneer.
That is why I call them Yupsters.
More than what we call them, it might be interesting to know what this bunch call themselves. Something complimentary, I bet.
There's no equivalent today for yuppies. They don't exist.
The ones who made it are making sure they'll stay there, and so will their kids.
Those who would have had a shot a decade or more before, won't get one now.
Let me add two local examples: my wife is involved in local environmental stuff. At a recent meeting, they were discussing transit issues, and one of the people there started expounding about light rail and monorails (I'm not kidding: monorails).
My sensible wife points out that bus systems use existing infrastructure, can shift to meet local needs, and cost a hell of a lot less than light rails (if I was there I would have asked the woman if she got her idea from "The Simpsons" but that's why I'm not allowed to attend.)
The person did not respond to that point, but kept insisting light rail was the way to go.
The second incident happened last night. My wife was manning a booth at National Night Out street fair. She was talking to a person who thought gas prices were too low. They needed to be $4 a gallon if they wanted to get things done.
My wife -- did I mention she's sane? -- pointed out that poor and lower-class people who needed cars to get to work would be hurt by this far more than those who can afford to pay that much.
The person admitted that she hadn't thought of that.
Ficta, Cracker, Cosmos
True. And dear responses. Thanks.
“Not a knock on Feste ...”
Roger that. Have that feeling of generosity and satire about many of your own posts. Still learning.
“... but if you're going to comment wouldn't you strive for a little clarity?”
Yes. No. Maybe. See next.
“ .. Felt the same way about PB. Hard enough to be a Lefty on Althouse. Does incoherence further your cause?”
I don’t know PB. Will pass on PB. I’m not Lefty. Covered that a few times. Too much binary here. Negligence of tri-valued and many-valued modal logics. See next.
Incoherence is practiced and malpracticed.
There are guys who pay guys to write incoherently.
Reminds me of my days, months, years, after going to join the Marines.
Accidentally ending up - vocationally - interrogating crooked military who ran drugs and other contraband. Professionally trained, highly disciplined, Monetarily motivated - liars. Coherence and incoherence mean nothing. To them.
I can write coherently. Two science degrees. One of them graduate.
Or not write coherently - one law degree (waste of time: should have gone macro-econ). "You can write a fuzzy decision that gets nine votes," Justice Scalia said, "or a very clear decision that gets five votes."
Best, not write at all - stealing silently through the woods going dark with Harriet Tubman.
My idol.
Incompetence in my satires of incoherent writing is all my fault. It’s a mockery of crooked military who I’ve interrogated. Civilians too. The current political scene reminds me of too much. Too dark. Too painful. Drain the swamp bitch, or go away.
I didn't sign up for Love for the purpose of entering the Gates of Hell to call forth the Dark Lord.
I came by my vocation accidentally. And fully embraced chance. Call chance "God." Or call chance "The Theory of Large Numbers." Suit yourself.
It’s all good to me.
This blog is really not good for me. Sometimes.
Maybe I’m not good for it.
My incompetence at satire of incoherence is my fault. Not yours. You’re okay.
The one who pays too much attention to me means only that we're -- both -- pretty much fucked.
I’m not a ghost writer for [hint] Steven Wright :).
Already funded well enough ...
Peace
Feste is clearer than Guild of Cannonballs or Toothless Revolutionary [Ritmo]. At least, to me.
And living in 'brownstones' is a northeast phenomenon that doesn't apply to the west coast. Geographic stereotyping
I'm still not sure what exactly a "brownstone" is - or a "loft."
I do think, however, that today's "young urban professionals who are--gasp!--political conservatives," probably are likewise not sure what exactly conservativism is (since there has been practically no one since Reagan who has given voice to conservative principles, rather than that fraudulent conservativism called "libertarianism). As such, they probably have been infected with the progressive view and the "new norm" way of things more than we realize, including urbanism ideology.
The Yups are still around in my neighborhood, the 6th District that was contested in an election this spring. Unlike the earlier, Baby Boomer version of Yups, which seemed to drift conservative politically (one writer called them "the Young Fogeys") this newer, Dumbest Generation set seems to what we erroneously call "liberalism" these days. I suspect brainwashing by teachers during whatever higher education they had. (Few of them seem genuinely educated to me.) During the 6th District race--judging by all the partisan political signs on the front lawns of all the McMansions around me, the Yups here went gung-ho for the slimy "liberal.
Dishonest Jon Ossoff. One thing remains the same, linking the older Yuppies to the newer ones, is their conformism. I'm often tempted to use a line from Robert B. Parker's Spenser and ask a bunch of them, "Awww, how cute--does your mommy dress you all alike?"
David Brooks called out bourgeois bohemians more than fifteen years ago, which this article somehow fails to mention.
If being a member of the new aspirational class requires the ability to discuss the latest Rachel Maddow segment, I'll pass.
But then way back in the way back in Junior High school in the mid 1950s being one of the cool kids reqwuired the ability to discuss the latest Rawhide show on television the night before. I gave it a pass then, and I'll give Ms. Maddow a pass as well. I guess I'm just lucky with that attitude.
@Feste Thing Police keep all boardroom reports.
"The thing that annoys me about the sort of people described here is their tendency to be a bit self righteous and preachy."
A bit self-righteous and preachy?
A bit?
They SCREAM it.
Blogger Ficta said...
@Feste Thing Police keep all boardroom reports.
Heh.
Many missions are predestined to succeed only by failing and then surviving as well-recorded, failed, science lab tests.
Archival laws vary.
I’m too low level to worry about. Might as well get or keep my records as keep tosspots.
My only worry is the boys and girls who want to come out of prison to pay a visit. Prison boardroom reports brew slowly. The three weird sisters weren’t prisoners - except to, “he [their boss] won’t be commanded,” so they said to Macbeth.
Macduff had the better truth: “I have no words. My voice is in my sword.”
That was a God-given mission, for Macduff to kill Macbeth. No man born of woman could take that mission, impossible.
I don’t really know how High up the Chain of Command really goes.
I’m not too worried. “Consider yourselves already dead,” say most good commanders to their scouts. To those who listen.
I have a greater love for civilian life. Thinking that Vonnegut did too. Listing toward retirement. Listing.
"My lady will hang thee for thy absence."
Feste - "Let her hang me. He that is well hanged in this world needs to fear no colors."
Out and gone!
Yuppies became bobos became SWPLs. All versions characterized by grasping materialism and heavy status-seeking/status-signaling, but the type has definitely evolved to become more self-deluding and more savagely pharisaical over time.
Much of the political class, both in the US and Europe are dinks. (double income no kids)
they really truly do not understand us deplorables.
I'm not a yuppie but I am a DINK (at least I was back when we had "earned" incomes) and I understand you deplorables quite well. (We've never had any guilt about our deliberate choice to be childless since we have family who graciously picked up our slack. My brother-and-sister-in-law have three kids and eight grandchildren and are poised to move into great grandparent territory. My two uncles have eight children, nineteen grandchildren and seven great grandchildren between them. So far. I once posted family portraits of both families at a zero population growth website. The comments section went bananas.)
The thing that annoys me about the sort of people described here is their tendency to be a bit self righteous and preachy.
I grew up in northern Alabama surrounded by folks who [self]righteous & preachy. The big difference is that I always understood where those Protestant folks were coming from. I didn't like it. I didn't agree with some of it. But, I knew that they were some of the branches on the Christian tree, & I understood what they cared about & why.
But, these guys?! There's just no thought-out & codified moral systematics at all, as far as I can tell. It's just this mish-mash of a class-bound idea of "Virtue" that gets held as passionately as any faith.
I understand mistaking mores for morals. But, I just don't understand the moral ferocity. It just strikes me as so unnecessary.
@Sukie,
I'm not a yuppie but I am a DINK
You may have been a DINK, but were you ever a DILDO?
Double Income, Little Dog Only
Brooklyn anti-vaxxers are refusing to vaccinate their dogs over autism
"It’s actually much more common in the hipster-y areas"
At a recent meeting, they were discussing transit issues, and one of the people there started expounding about light rail and monorails (I'm not kidding: monorails).
The latest trend in government boondoggles is the hyperloop! Here's this morning's full press from the leftie media at CNBC. Unfortunately you can't tell from the replay but this short clip was a master class in leftie media manipulation. The next question (which cuts off at the end of the clip) referenced the challenges of obtaining right of way in busy corridors for a train that doesn't like curves. In other words the biggest thing that will kill this technology. But when the question was asked by one anchor instead of waiting for the answer he was interrupted by a second anchor so it wouldn't need to be addressed. Full credit for asking the tough questions. Master. Class.
I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth reading that description of the "new elite."
Nihilist Posuers
Self absorbed virally signalling phoneies. "Is this milk cruelty free?"
There was a French-Canadian sitcom (available on YouTube) called Les Bobos, about a pair of bourgeois-bohême in the hipster arrondissement of Montréal. A lot of the scenes take place in ridiculously chic restaurants and galleries. I wish my French was better because it looks like pretty funny stuff.
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
8/2/17, 11:37 AM
i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living."
Far from it. I am a high rate payer. Its just that as a resident of a state that can manage quite nicely without state and local incomes taxes I don't see why all else being the same I should pay more in to the Feds than a New Yorker among others. Nor do I see why hot shot law firms in NYC or tech companies in Silicon Valley get to pay a lot of their staffers their care fare, lunches and other personal benefits as a matter of course without the smug hipster employee not paying tax on that imputed income. People who vote Left should pay until they scream.
YH: I understand mistaking mores for morals. But, I just don't understand the moral ferocity. It just strikes me as so unnecessary.
Not unnecessary. Futile. The moral ferocity is the desperation of drowning men. They can't not know (or the less intelligent among them can't not feel) that they've descended into a nihilist clown show.
But what else have they got? The younger among them have been cut off from any normal human rootedness, and have nothing but the flimsiest ersatz identities to sustain themselves. The older ones liquidated their patrimony and invested everything in progressive utopian flim-flam.
vicari valdez: i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living.
Your capacity for entirely missing the point never fails to charm and amuse.
Btw, I'm one of those "rich" who benefits from the deductions cubanbob is talking about, and yet somehow I manage to think clearly about whose subsidizing what and whom here.
FBi documents conclude that Clinton camp smashed devices and used bleach-bit to obstruct justice.
The white wash of the Clinton Crime Family = what leftists meditate after yoga and recycling.
No, YoungHegelian, we've had dogs of all sizes so I've never been a DILDO (that's a new one on me). But then, space has never been an issue for us. We're not GINKs either (Green Inclinations No Kids). I understand GINKs often have big dogs, so they're for the most part not DILDOs either.
I will say it's absolutely appalling how big a bite the IRS and State of California take out of us DINKs. We were lucky to be able to afford dogs at all.
At a recent meeting, they were discussing transit issues, and one of the people there started expounding about light rail and monorails (I'm not kidding: monorails).
I for one never understood why monorail mass transit never caught on. The infrastructure is minimal, they can follow the paths of existing streets and put stations in existing buildings. What's not to like?
"whose subsidizing what and whom here." Angel! You're loosing me here!
We need a Warren Buffet, Google, Zuckerberug, Bezos tax.
Tax the loop-holer leftist.
Certain tribes' identities are identified almost entirely by whom they hate.
"they can follow the paths of existing streets and put stations in existing buildings. What's not to like?"
It's not monorail but the principle is the same. LA built light rail going all over the city except to LAX !
The taxi monopoly saw to that.
So now we have Uber.
These people are virtue signalers. And the people they're trying to impress are as narcissistic as they are.
Better label would be "Smugsters".
Yuppies were certainly not as political, smug or committed to virtue-signaling as the young elites of today.
so long as both know to consume the same organic farmers market berries, discuss the latest Rachel Maddow segment, and quote lines from the musical Hamilton....
So many people on my Facebook Feed fall into this group. (sigh)
@Michael K, I wonder if the Olympics in LA will impel TPTB to extend the light rail to the airport.
Mark says:
I do think, however, that today's "young urban professionals who are--gasp!--political conservatives," probably are likewise not sure what exactly conservativism is (since there has been practically no one since Reagan who has given voice to conservative principles, rather than that fraudulent conservativism called "libertarianism).
Ronald Reagan responds:
“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
The suggested term is the "aspirational class."
Because "grubby conforming climbers" was taken?
It's not monorail but the principle is the same. LA built light rail going all over the city except to LAX !
Sacramento's doesn't go to the airport either. Seems like they never do.
cubanbob said...
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
8/2/17, 11:37 AM
i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living."
Far from it. I am a high rate payer. Its just that as a resident of a state that can manage quite nicely without state and local incomes taxes I don't see why all else being the same I should pay more in to the Feds than a New Yorker among others. Nor do I see why hot shot law firms in NYC or tech companies in Silicon Valley get to pay a lot of their staffers their care fare, lunches and other personal benefits as a matter of course without the smug hipster employee not paying tax on that imputed income. People who vote Left should pay until they scream.
8/2/17, 3:54 PM
well ok, you have to start somewhere. anything that harms the job creators is ok by me.
anything that harms the job creators is ok by me.
Truest thing you've ever said.
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
8/2/17, 11:37 AM
i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living."
Far from it. I am a high rate payer. Its just that as a resident of a state that can manage quite nicely without state and local incomes taxes I don't see why all else being the same I should pay more in to the Feds than a New Yorker among others. Nor do I see why hot shot law firms in NYC or tech companies in Silicon Valley get to pay a lot of their staffers their care fare, lunches and other personal benefits as a matter of course without the smug hipster employee not paying tax on that imputed income. People who vote Left should pay until they scream.
8/2/17, 3:54 PM
well ok, you have to start somewhere. anything that harms the job creators is ok by me."
Your employer give you free lunches, cab fare to go home after work or bus you to work,provide dry cleaning and laundry among other things? You do understand implied income?
I provide jobs and as a business owner I get 1099 income for a car my own business owns. If it good enough for me to pay 1099 tax for then its good enough for them.
Bad Lieutenant said...
anything that harms the job creators is ok by me.
Truest thing you've ever said.
8/3/17, 12:21 AM
amen
cubanbob said...
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
vicari valdez said...
cubanbob said...
Let the Republicans eliminate the deduction for state and local income taxes and these pretentious hipsters won't be feeling so smug. Indeed it's time to tax a lot of the imputed income these coastal clowns get the rest of country doesn't get.
8/2/17, 11:37 AM
i agree. higher taxes for the rich. they owe us a living."
Far from it. I am a high rate payer. Its just that as a resident of a state that can manage quite nicely without state and local incomes taxes I don't see why all else being the same I should pay more in to the Feds than a New Yorker among others. Nor do I see why hot shot law firms in NYC or tech companies in Silicon Valley get to pay a lot of their staffers their care fare, lunches and other personal benefits as a matter of course without the smug hipster employee not paying tax on that imputed income. People who vote Left should pay until they scream.
8/2/17, 3:54 PM
well ok, you have to start somewhere. anything that harms the job creators is ok by me."
Your employer give you free lunches, cab fare to go home after work or bus you to work,provide dry cleaning and laundry among other things? You do understand implied income?
I provide jobs and as a business owner I get 1099 income for a car my own business owns. If it good enough for me to pay 1099 tax for then its good enough for them.
8/3/17, 12:58 AM
something about the tone of this post seems to suggest that you think that i don't think people should have tp pay their fair share. well, not what i believe. we're actually agreeing on a lot of things in this thread.
"Bobos in Paradise" Y'r welcome.
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