Yuppies: New Name, Same Sense Of Entitlement
Have you, like most of the creative underclass, been wondering to yourself, "What happened to all those yuppies we heard so much about in the 1980s?" Well at least in the UK, they're still there—but they have switched to a new acronym. Without so much as sending out a press release! Young urban professionals have grown up and become ARPPies: Asset-Rich, Penny Poors. And judging by one Arppie's soul-searching self-evaluation, they've given up the flashy cars and coke orgies in favor of "discussing the economy, the credit crunch and the cost of food."
Where once they were young and upwardly mobile, now they're middle aged and standing still.
And I know this, because I was a Yuppy once - but now, like so many of my kind, I'm an Arrpy.
Nearly 20 years on, we are married or divorced, or both, have children or stepchildren, own nice homes and can look back over two decades in which we've had a fabulous lifestyle.
So how has your thinking evolved into your golden years?
And part of the problem is we've got so used to our spending habits we no longer understand the difference between a luxury item and an essential.
Gas, I've come to understand, is an essential, Giorgio Armani is not.
Food is fundamental, skiing is not.
Goodness! I hope it's not hitting you too hard.
Yes, the sad fact is that up and down the land the Arppies are obsessed with the cost of the bare necessities of life. And it doesn't stop with the food shop.
As retail analysts Mintel pointed out yesterday in their annual analysis of household spending, Arppies are cancelling family holidays.
Two of my friends have already scaled down their summer holidays, one cancelling the annual jaunt to Tuscany and even losing her £2,000 deposit on the three-week break.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
But at least we Arppies are optimists and know things can only get better. Well, they couldn't get much worse.
