What does yuppie mean to you?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I would agree with most of your post but I think that the U stood for upwardly mobile rather then Urban.

My memories of yuppies are that they all had the first versions of mobile phones (which were the size of small suitcases) ,wore red braces(U.S. suspenders) drove Foreign sports cars ,drank in wine bars,all worked in financial jobs in the City of London,pretended to snort copious amounts of cocaine and were particulary prone to heart attacks while still in their twenties.

Ah it seems all so quaint and ancient now.

22

My god I’ve just read through the rest of the thread (which I know I should have done before I posted )and people are still talking about Yuppies as a current occurrence .

Yuppies are not even totally yesterday ,they’re totally last century .

And I’m completely un hip old bastard.

What next people rebelling against Bush by becoming punks ?

Not being nasty but if you described yourself as a Yuppie this side of the Atlantic you’d be directed towards the Victoria and Albert museum ,probably with a boy scout to help you cross the road.

23

I agree. Aint been any Yuppies 'round these parts in years. The term “Yuppie” genearally refers to the slick haired, suspender wearing, BMW driving Gordon Gekko wannabes of the go-go 80s. They were more or less replaced by “Dot-com millionares” in the 90s as the nouveau riche de jour. I don’t know what they have today. I’m not sure if there is a readily identifyable subculture or upper-middle class professionals. According to Wikipedia they (well…we really) are just called “affluent professionals”.

24

Two countries, common language, yadda yadda.

Yes, as described in this thread (perfectly by SmartAleq), we still have yuppies. My brother-in-law and his wife are yuppies, and while they’re perfectly wonderful people, they’re about as deep as a spit puddle.

A friend of mine (who’s not a yuppie) describes them as “Adolescent Souls”. Some people have “Infant Souls”, and they’re just trying to figure out how the world works, and they question and observe and tend to be the scientists and inventors. “Adolescent Souls” are terribly concerned with fitting in. They want the same clothes and the same cars and the same houses (little boxes) and the same diplomas from the same schools and anything that isn’t same scares them. I personally think much of the reason they tend to be so financially successful is that they’re afraid that if they stop working, they’ll start thinking. If they start thinking, they start questioning, and then, just like the kid in high school who dares to question why we’re all wearing neon pink, they’ll be ostracized by their friends, and that’s a terrifying idea for an Adolescent Soul…or for a yuppie.

In Chicago, they live in Lincoln Park. A few years ago, they were called “Chad and Trixies” and stereotypically drove Jettas. I’m sure it’s some other car now, 'cause a three year old Jetta would be too old for Chad or Trixie to drive anymore.

25

Yuppies are no longer confined to Lincoln Park, unfortunately. They have spread to Bucktown and Lakeview and are slowly encroaching upon Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Andersonville as well. Ugh.

Does anyone else think yuppie is somewhat of a racially-specific term? For some reason all the yuppies around Chicago seem to be mostly white. (Maybe it’s just Chicago.)

26

You just sound European to me. :slight_smile:

27

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
I personally think much of the reason they tend to be so financially successful is that they’re afraid that if they stop working, they’ll start thinking. If they start thinking, they start questioning, and then, just like the kid in high school who dares to question why we’re all wearing neon pink, they’ll be ostracized by their friends, and that’s a terrifying idea for an Adolescent Soul…or for a yuppie.
QUOTE]

Well, I don’t know about you but I HAVE to work so I can eat and pay my rent.

I see a lot of negative stereotyping of people who are are likely better off than you (or maybe not since work appears to be an optional pasttime to you).
As mentioned earlier, there are no longer true Yuppies. There are, however, some characteristics that seem to be consistent accross the affluent professional class:
-Apreciation for athletics, including involvement in high school and college sports. Especially lacross, hockey, crew, soccer, tennis, golf, hockey or rugby
-Attendence at Ivy League or Patriot League colleges or similar private universities.
-Often involved in fraternities, student government or other groups
-Live in places like Manhattan’s Upper East or Upper West Side, or Boston’s Back Bay.
-Vacation in The Hamptons, Fire Island, NY, Cape Cod, Newport, RI or select parts of the Jersey Shore
-Shops for clothes at places like Brooks Brothers, Thomas Pink, Charles Thywitt, Banana Republic, Ralph Lauren
-Works in finance, accounting, law, real estate, sometimes technology but more on the business side
-Spends a lot of time drinkin in bars and lounges. Not so much nightclubs.
-Eventually gets married and moves out to affluent suburbs in Northern New Jersey, Fairfield Co, Connecticut, Westchester Co, NY, Southern NH or Eastern MA.

28

I have to work to pay my rent. My brother-in-law chooses to work 80 hour work weeks while his wife is a practical single mother to their preschool age daughter so that they can pay their mortgage in the most expensive neighborhood in the area, their vacation home, their two new SUV’s every three years, their fine wine collection, their three big screen televisions, their all-leather, all custom-made sofas and chairs in three living rooms, and the ginormous amount and variety of toys their daughter breaks with frightening regularity because she knows Daddy will just buy her a newer better model of whatever she destroys.

To each their own, but those choices don’t garner a lot of sympathy from me when he’s lamenting that he hardly knows his daughter and his wife is teary because she never sees him. He could work a lot less if they chose to make do with less. My $30 coffee table from Target holds a cup of coffee just as well as their $300 coffee table from Ethan Allen.

29

I generally refer to myself as a hippie-yuppie. I’m young, urban, professional, I like my toys, but I generally care a bit more about being green and being with my family. I have a job that pays less than I could be making in another sector but that is also highly rewarding.

30

What should they get rid off? Buy a house in a town where the school systems aren’t as good? Eat take-out instead of enjoying nice restaurants? Buy crappy furniture?

The problem is that once you start with one of these jobs, you get sucked into the lifestyle. For young people, they get caught up going out to the trendy bars and restaurants every weekend or living in an expensive appartment (with three roomates). They need to fit in at work so that means clothes. As they get older and go up in the company, they get a little more money. That enables them to get a nicer place, better stuff. Once they have a family, they need to keep them in the style they are accustomed to.

It’s called “golden handcuffs”. You get so ingrained in the lifestyle, it would be so disruptive to leave your lucrative job that it becomes unthinkable. And it’s insideous. One of my coworkers was fine with his $2000/mo one bedroom Manhattan appartment. He’s been living with his girlfriend for a while now and now they need to updgrade to a $5000 a month two bedroom luxury appartment. And of course, once you upgrade the appartment, tables made from wire-spools and Ikia chairs just won’t do.

31

Mining Millionares? Oil Barons?

Ahh ! (genuine lightbulb moment) Private Equity Tax Evaders

or PETES :wink:

32

I’ve heard this referred to as a Bohemian Bourgeois - a BoBo. This is what I aspire to be, after I stop being poor :).

33

My heart weeps for these poor people. Oh the humanity!

34

Well, when you work 80 hours a week to pay 2/3 of your salary just to rent, then we can talk. $2000 a month is typical for an appartment in Manhattan. Sure there are cheaper options like New Jersey, Westchester County or the Outer Bouroughs but it starts becoming a function of cheaper housing costs vs several hours a day commuting. Or you could maybe find a roach-infested shithole for around $1600.

35

This is what I don’t understand about the yuppie lifestyle. I can understand putting up with furniture that isn’t exactly what you wanted until you have a better job and can afford better- in fact, I’m doing that right now with my dining room chairs (they look nice, but they are uncomfortable, and I’m waiting until I have a job to get new ones). I can even understand putting off buying the furniture you really want because you live in a small apartment and it won’t fit. But why should you have to replace furniture that is working for you just because you now live in a fancier apartment?

Of course, my philosophy of furniture is pretty much “as long as it’s comfortable, there are lots of bookshelves, and good light for reading, we’re good”…

I don’t really get this, either. Of course, you’re talking to someone who is job hunting, and really hoping to find a job like my last one, where I sometimes wore 10-year-old T-shirts to work, and nobody cared. They’re comfortable, and having more clothes in the rotation means I can put off doing laundry for longer.

36

Okay. But it’s the subsequent “gotta haves” that send my eyes a-rolling. Just because you’re living in an expensive box that doesn’t mean everything else you described (the overpriced furniture, the status symbol cars, the designer clothes) suddenly become requirements that you become shackled to like a slave. I don’t care what job you have. The “golden handcuff” scenario only applies to conformists who have a need to attribute their pretentiousness to things beyond their control instead of taking personal responsibility for their own excessive lifestyle.

37

Because the furniture may no longer “work for you”. That old beer and nacho stained couch held together with duct tape worked fine in a college dorm or a 20-something appartment. When you get a little older and make a little more money, you tend to want something a bit nicer.

As a guy, I tend not to care about non-electronic furniture that much, however my girlfriend prefers to buy quality furniture at a good price.

“Yuppies” and other conspicuous consumers take this to the extreme where everything they buy is designed to impress other people with it’s ostentatious. It’s one thing to want to live in a nice space, it’s quite another to live in a showroom.

How you dress is how you want the world to perceive you. Certain professions, especially in professional services, are very image focused. Part of the job is looking, acting and speaking the part. When people wear cheap or ill fitting clothing or speak with provincial accents, they put themselves at a disadvantage. They make it that much more difficult for people to take them seriously.
I would read The Millionare Next Door. There’s a whole chapter that compares a construction contractor with a lawyer, both who make $80k a year. The contractor can go to work in jeans and T-shirts and drives his junker pickup around while the lawyer needs to buy all kinds of business clothes and drive the “right” car and live in the “right” neighborhood.

38

See, I dispute the use of the terms “must,” “needs” and “right.” I submit that the truly secure individual will, by his/her demeanor and attitude, MAKE his/her choices in dress, vehicle or location appear to be the correct ones. Yuppies have no such security or confidence in themselves and therefore feel the need to display the most au courant labels and badges in order to be seen as conforming and therefore belonging to the class they aspire to.

Real, old money families don’t spend the way yuppies do, nor do they consider conspicuous consumption to be anything other than crass and nouveau riche. An old money person would rather starve than spend the principal of their fortune, whereas a yuppie will mortgage his own mother to keep appearances up.

My boss just bought a bigass 52" LCD TV for four grand. I researched for five minutes and found a better one for less than three. I surmise it’s just against the yuppie code to find a good deal on something–I guess it means you can’t REALLY afford it. Better to overspend ridiculously in order to look rich to the salesperson who only sees you as a walking commission. :rolleyes:

There’s nothing wrong with wanting nice things–I just refute the perception that in order to be nice something has to be new and overtly expensive. Want an Italian leather couch? Great–you go buy one at the “right” furniture store and I’ll order a custom one from the factory that is identical in every particular for half the price. Designer clothes? I can show you shops where you can find that stuff for a fraction of the price with the damned tags still on–from some yuppie who found out too late that it wasn’t exactly “right.” Buy your car as a lease return and let some other fool take that sixty percent depreciation hit. As for real estate, don’t get me started. Today’s shitty neighborhood is tomorrow’s trendy living spot–but the smart people are the ones who MAKE it trendy, not the sheeple who move in after the prices go through the roof.

It must be a bitch to work so hard and make so much money in order to enjoy it so little and have nothing to show for it in the end. All it takes is a paradigm shift but a yuppie would rather be flayed alive than think for himself or accept that her tastes and preferences are perfectly valid and okay. I’d pity the poor fuckers if they didn’t tend to be so insufferably snotty about their “choices.”

39

I came in here to say “Shagnasty”, but I see he’s beaten me to the punch. I mean, “I like BMWs, but I need an SUV”? What can you say to top that? :stuck_out_tongue:

40

Mostly it means the 80’s and Family Ties and the Cosby Show and Hill Street Blues are on TV.