What does yuppie mean to you?

[WhyNot]

@msmith537

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.

Way to exclude the middle. There’s a lot out there that’s somewhere between “duct tape” and Overtime expensive.

When you get a little older and make a little more money, you tend to want something a bit nicer.

Sure, I agree. That’s why I spent a whole $700 for a sleeper sofa to replace my Ikea cheapie a few years ago. It didn’t take more money to get a nice looking, moderately priced sofabed which holds our asses just fine while we watch television and sleeps overnight visitors as well. I don’t live in squalor, I’m far beyond the milk crate bookshelves of my youth, I just don’t live beyond my means, and I choose to live more modestly than the “yuppies” we’re decrying. Again, if you can afford it and you aren’t missing time with your family or other things you place value on to pay for it, I encourage getting the best quality and most beautiful things you can afford. It just doesn’t make sense to me to buy expensive things and then feel bad because you never see your kid 'cause you’re working so hard. That, to me, is “beyond your means” no matter how good your credit is.

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.

If it’s “a good price”, then she’s not a good example of the mindset we’re discussing in this thread. If she’s not giving up things she values, and she’s buying things because she likes them, not because her friends and neighbors should like them, then she’s not a yuppie in my book. It’s the intent that defines the mindset: are you buying this because you like it, or because it’s got the label or comes from the right store or will impress your friends? Of course I want my friends to like what I have, that’s natural. But I’m not willing to sacrifice my time with my daughter on the altar of vanity.

“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.

I absolutely agree.

[msmith537]

@WhyNot

Again, if you can afford it and you aren’t missing time with your family or other things you place value on to pay for it, I encourage getting the best quality and most beautiful things you can afford. It just doesn’t make sense to me to buy expensive things and then feel bad because you never see your kid 'cause you’re working so hard. That, to me, is “beyond your means” no matter how good your credit is.

Essentially it comes down to valuing material posessions over all, including family and relationships. It’s not just that they work hard or own a bunch of expensive crap. Plenty of people work long hours and manage to maintain a family and relationships. The people we are talking about even view their wives and kids as accessories. They don’t care about missing family time any more than you might care about rescheduling a staff meeting.

And, of course, you have the wanabes who don’t make $400,000 a year but want to appear as if they do.

[robardin]

Just go find the Peter Gabriel song from the late 1980’s, Big Time. It was the perfect song then to capture the zeitgeist.

my car’s getting bigger (big time)
my house’s getting bigger (big time)
my eyes getting bigger (big time)
and my mouth (big time)
my belly’s getting bigger (big time)
and my bank account (big time)
look at my circumstance (big time)
and the bulge in my big big big big big big big big big

(Here is the video of it on YouTube)

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@TheLoadedDog

Really? It was coined in the early 80s, IIRC. Even the oldest Boomers would have had school-aged kids and no or few grey hairs.

huh?? The oldest Boomers were born in 1945/6–a sixty-one year-old has more than a few grey hairs. I’m a younger Boomer, born in 1958, and I’ve got a few, especially in my beard.

Regarding ‘yuppies’, one thing that was associated with the concept in the 1980s was what we would now call SUVs; in those days the Isuzu Trooper II was a popular yup-mobile. I can’t for the life of me remember if there was a generic term (like SUV) for that type of vehicle. I think they just called them “trucks” or whatever the model was, like Blazer or Cherokee.