I wonder if one of the causes of animosity towards “entitled millennials” is that many millennials are poor people who look rich. There’s this growing class of people who wear nice clothes, have fancy new electronic gadgets, go out to eat nice food… and will never own a home or have a retirement fund or put a child through college.
It’s so easy to say “if you cut down on the avocado toast maybe you could save up”, and so hard to accept that a house these days is fifty thousand avocado toasts, and that’s why so many of us have just given up. We don’t treat ourselves because we think the world will take care of us when we get older; we treat ourselves because we know it won’t. Might as well feel and look good on the way down.
Good post. Good logic. Like, if I can save 10k a year by scrimping and being as miserly as possible, and therefore be able to buy a house in 30 years…yeah, I’m just gonna spend my 30 years being happy instead. Like, I’m definitely putting some money into my savings, but what’s the point when everything is so unattainably expensive?
Furthermore, the technological tools that millennials use daily, such as cell phones, are seen as luxury items by older geneations because those were luxury items back then. But technology changes. Cell phones used to require their own backpack, but now they fit in your back pocket. Over time, technology becomes more accessible and more affordable. Cell phones and the Internet are not so much luxuries anymore as they are necessities.
We need the Internet to apply to those retail amd fast food jobs everyone seems to think should barely pay minimum wage. We need cell phones so that we can be contacted about those minimum wage jobs. Land lines still exist, but they are becoming a thing of the past. Cheap smart phones and data plans exist and more expensive phones can be financed for around $20/month.
“When I was young, we didn’t have…” You can finish that sentence with cars, CD players, Bluray, color TV, the Internet, cell phones, Facebook…the list goes on and on. Having items that weren’t available in the past does not necessarily mean they are still luxury items today. And just because something was afforable in the past, doesn’t mean it is afforable or even available now as some technology dies out. Buying a house is not a necessity but a luxury–and it always has been–but it is not a luxury I desire. Houses are expensive and biying and selling property is a hassle I actually want to avoid. And there is nothing wrong with that.
TL;DR Society changes. Prices, accessibility, and necessities change. That’s okay. So let’s stop harrassing millennials and put that energy towards important things like providing access to good education and stable jobs that pay a living wage. Maybe then millennials might desire owning a house to eat their avocado toast in.
Reblogging with especial emphasis on the “daily parts of 2010’s life are seen as extravagance because they used to be luxury items” (like cel phones.) I think it’s taking a long time for the semiotics of that to catch up with reality.
Also, speaking of avocado toast, I will never get over the idea that anyone thought a healthy meal that costs $4 to make is the height of extravagance. It doesn’t even have any animal products.
We still see people complain about the impoverished having REFRIGERATORS. I think we’re going to be putting up with this nonsense for a long time.
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Question of Smoke 