October 19, 2007
Yuppies were an undifferentiated mass of twenty something urbanites who, during the lavish '80s colonised the previously salt of the earth working class postcodes clustered around major city centres. They bought up cottages and terrace houses which they restored complete with geranium filled window boxes and plaster ducks flying up hallway walls.
Harley Davidsons and particular breeds of dog were among their fashion accessories of choice and their mobile phones were not much smaller than their cast iron, claw footed bath tubs. These white collar, urbane young professionals were the original latte set. They're in their forties now and re-defined as being on the cusp of the baby boomer and gen x categories which are, apparently, as readily identifiable as Harley Davidsons and Vespers.
Yuppies were the first beneficiaries of our then new global economy and the technology that came with it. When they loaded their 5.25 inch MS DOS startup discs into the floppy drive, the gen Y babies on their laps were being introduced to the latest version of life as we know it. Now in their 20s, gen Y are as familiar with life under federal Labor as they are with the aesthetics of the bakelite telephone. That is to say, not at all.
Of course, not everyone was a yuppie back then any more than gen Y are uniformly predictable. Except politically where 73% of them support Labor.
Gen Y member Garth Williams puts this down to a combination of Rudd's future focus and the disproportionate effect of WorkChoices on young people. Climate change and housing affordability also get a mention, as do Facebook and MySpace where vast networks of youngsters are thought to be "whipping up support for various election issues".
At the other end of the age spectrum, David Barnett is gracious enough to concede that it's gen Y's turn, but he doesn't like their politics. Of his own age group, "We will vote for a return of the coalition government, despite the atrocities that John Howard and his ministers have perpetrated down through the years." The young just don't understand what they're getting themselves into.
Sally Breen and Alasdair Duncan beg to differ. Life as they know it is just not life as David Barnett has known it. 'Social' doesn't mean what it used to and there's a whole other moral structure at work. Gen Y don't care for the level of greed and pillage they see in older generations and they resent being left to clean up the mess.
If the comments are any indication, one of the things they really hate is being classified as an undifferentiated mass. Can't blame them really. Back in the day, we yuppies didn't like it either.
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Lyn,
Hmmm. A decade out. They moved into the inner city working class cottages in the 1970s in Adelaide. Some talk about their motorbikes--the women--but never plastic ducks. It was more like Fred Williams or Brett Whitley
They were the Dunstan Whitlam crowd.They are now in their fifties and they did their post graduate degrees in the US. They now live in inner city apartments and are deeply worried about climate change.