Is the Yuppie really back?

I came across a few articles (most notably in the British Independent Newspaper and online men’s magazine Details) recently about the resurgence of the Yuppie.

The Yuppie or "Young Urban Professional" was a byword for greed, self-absorption and a lack of a social conscience. Obsession with career was a yuppie hallmark. As The Yuppie Handbook (a social-anthropological work published in 1984) pointed out, work had to be personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and a vehicle for self-expression. Yuppie couples worked long hours, put off having children and had lots of disposable income. The official death of the Yuppie was 19 October 1987, the day the stock market crashed.

According to the article in the Independent, yuppies have had a lot of unfair press. The term originally referred to a young city-dweller with a well-paid, professional job and an affluent lifestyle. However, it quickly got confused with the “Loads-a-money caricature".

So did the yuppie really die?

The Independent’s take on this is that they didn’t disappear, they merely adapted. They got bigger and quieter. The labels have changed and they have also gone green (buying organic food, ethical fashion and even animal friendly or eco-friendly toiletries). In addition:

Instead of chucking money at Porsches and Rolexes, new yuppies prefer "experiential" pursuits such as travel, talks and art events. They dress differently. Out goes the sharp suit, which to York's chagrin is thought "flash and anachronistic". "Indie yuppies" resemble students or aspiring artists in vintage T-shirts and recycled Terra Plana trainers.

According to the Yuppie Handbook there are some essentials that every yuppie would not be able to live without: gourmet coffee, a Burberry trench coat, expensive running shoes, a Cuisinart, a renovated kitchen with a double sink, smoked mozzarella from Dean & DeLuca, a housekeeper, a mortgage, a Coach bag, a Gucci briefcase, and a Rolex. One could always add to that list: mobile phones, filofaxes, walkmans, bottled spring water and portable computers (if they had them then)” The Independent’s article goes on to add that the modern yuppie could be found, “working off stress with a shiatsu massage and a facial, learning as much as possible about fine wine, traveling around the world on vacation, exercising at a fancy health club, listening to Bessie Smith and Bob Marley and the Police on a tiny device attached to headphones, drinking bottled spring water, freshening up in a five-star-hotel-quality bathroom, typing away at a computer while sitting in an ergonomic chair, racking up gobs of debt on his credit card”.

They then conclude that this long list of attributes would actually describe almost everyone you and I know! In other words, we’re all yuppies!

While I do agree that yuppies have always continued to be around, I don’t necessarily agree with their assessment that everyone is (or could be) a yuppie. Let me explain.

Going back to the original definition of a yuppie given above, he’s young, well-paid, professional, who enjoys an affluent lifestyle. No doubt that anyone (in fact a majority of people) can and do possess or enjoy all or most of the things listed in Yuppie Handbook and perhaps even more, there is one major difference – the yuppie has loads of disposable income. He is not, as the article describes “racking up gobs of debt on his credit card”. He has an excess of disposable funds to match his insatiable craving for extravagance. One clear example of modern day yuppies are bankers. I’m sure we’ve all heard and read about London bankers splurging tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds on a night’s revelling.

Secondly, there are places to acquire these material goods and there are places. Buying a pair of Levi’s jeans in a Levi’s store is different from purchasing the same pair of jeans at Harrods or Selfridges. In the same vein, going for facials, massages, manicures and pedicures is one thing, having someone famous do it for you (or even come to your house to do it for you) is quite another.

Third, referring to the definitions given at the top, yuppies are meant to display "a lack of a social conscience". Obviously those who are going for the more eco-friendly, animal-friendly, and other green products do not fall within this definition - and therefore not yuppies under those terms.

Finally, also contained in the definitions are the following qualities: "work had to be personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and a vehicle for self-expression. Yuppie couples worked long hours, put off having children and had lots of disposable income." We've already looked at the "lots of disposable income" bit. Now I want to concentrate on the rest of the statement. It seems that most workers today do not enjoy their work nor do they work the long hours (at least not without thousands of complaints). On the contrary they seem unfocused (constantly job hopping in search of higher pay cheque at the expense of invaluable experience) and content to wallow in self-pity (and therefore not really getting anywhere). As such, they lack the drive that result in big gains for the real yuppies (past and present).

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that, yes, the yuppie is alive and well. But he’s not just like everyone else. He’s got much more money than most of us. And as these luxuries become more common, all this means for the yuppie is that the bar for extravagance merely gets lifted higher and higher!