Gold Collar Generation?

[Wrecked944]

I just heard about this...seems like the typical complaint that every generation is more lazy and stupid than their lazy and stupid parents. But I actually have a friend who works at Clark University who seems to feel this is pretty accurate (even for the college kids) and even sees a gender difference in that the college girls are more self-confident and ambitious than college boys. So am I wrong? Does anybody on the forum have statistics or data points to offer one way or the other?

http://www.freep.com/features/living/coddled15d_20050715.htm

Generation gold-collar lives big, and at home

July 15, 2005

BY MARK DE LA VINA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- They find solace in $325 Christian Dior sunglasses, a shot of confidence in a $600 Louis Vuitton handbag. Never mind that they still live with their parents and earn modest salaries in service jobs.

For these working-class young adults, luxury is not just for the rich. Just ask Danielle Garcia, a receptionist at Kaiser Permanente who is in the midst of planning her lavish 24th birthday bash for 75 friends at the trendy Vault nightclub in downtown San Jose, Calif.


She and her pals don't know it, but they're part of a new niche that marketers say is growing: the gold-collar generation, blue-collar's glitzy counterpart.


"I'm really in awe of name-brand things," said Garcia, who moved back in with her parents to pay off credit-card debt. "I want to feel glamorous."


The appetite for designer labels and anything associated with celebrity has helped push luxury sales in the United States to $525 billion last year, up from $450 billion in 2003. By 2010, Americans are expected to spend $1 trillion on luxury goods, according to Michael Silverstein, co-author of "Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods" (Portfolio Hardcover, $26.95).


The gold-collar contingent, ages 18 to 25, is doing its part by downing $12 Kettle One vodka martinis and sporting the sleekest rims on their Lincoln Navigators. To sustain a lifestyle inspired by rap videos and pop culture magazines such as Us, they spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on expensive brand-name products and services.


For many, any interest in college and pursuing a career beyond retail or service industry is deferred, even abandoned, in order to maintain champagne tastes on a beer budget, said Ian Pierpoint, a senior vice president at the Chicago research firm Synovate.


"This is the best-dressed, least-able, least-equipped generation ever," Pierpoint said. "If you're 24 or 25 and you're still at home, you're not doing a lot of things, like paying your own utilities. They are in some ways very experienced, but they are more coddled than other generations."


There were about 20 million young people who could be categorized as working-class in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's more than half of the 18-to-25 population. In a phone survey of blue-collar adults within that age range, Synovate found that more than a third are what they have dubbed "gold-collar."


Garcia has never heard of the term, but her lifestyle and spending habits fit the bill: She once exchanged $305 Chanel sunglasses for $325 Christian Dior shades because a friend had bought the same pair. The owner of more than 100 pairs of shoes, Garcia built the theme of her birthday party around the Al Pacino gangster film "Scarface." The invitations read "The World Is Yours," a reference to the catchphrase that inspired Pacino's character to embark on a crime spree rooted in entitlement.


Garcia said her taste for excess is part fashion sense, part love of glitz.


"I want everyone to look at me. I want to have a lot of attention," she said. "I realize how shallow it sounds, but you know what? It's just what I like. I can't help what I like."


Jason Leong, 24, a makeup artist at Stila Cosmetics in San Jose, said he's more charged by the thrill of a new trinket than the attention it generates. He holds up his right wrist to show off a prized find, a canvas Christian Dior bracelet.


"This one was $180," he said, "but it makes me happy, so it's worth it."


Leong has tried to cut back on his high-end purchases from a year ago, reducing his $1,000-a-month spending budget, which was 60% of his take-home salary, to about $400 a month. He now sets aside $25 a week toward the purchase of a house so that he can move out of his father's place in Hayward, Calif.


When he walked into the Hugo Boss store at Valley Fair on a recent shopping jaunt, three salespeople gave him a nod and acknowledged him by name.


"This," he said, "is where I go when I want to spend money."


On this day of assembling an outfit for a wedding he buys a $120 gun-metal gray shirt and an $80 black leather belt. Though Leong is more restrained than some of his gold-collar contemporaries, he recently also shelled out $55 on Osmotics anti-oxidant for his eyes and $250 on a pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.


Tony Rodriguez, an intervention specialist for Catholic Charities in San Jose, encounters gold-collar youth through his work with a young men's support group. He said it's no secret why they try to emulate celebrities.


"You might not be able to live the life of Sean (P. Diddy) (Combs," he said. "But for a day, you can wear his $200 Sean John outfit and have that glow. You can have that star shine wearing that."


As a result, many young adults, he said, are more interested in stocking up on today's hot accessories than in investing time in an education or career that will pay off down the road.


"It's not that going to school is too hard," he said, "it's that it's not easy enough."

[pwd72s]

I love silly articles like this...the press picks out a few examples, tries to portray them as the norm. I could pick out some examples of hard working young people doing their best to get a good education, so they can move up in the world. But of course, they wouldn't be worthy of a psychobabble article....it wouldn't sell enough papers.

[Wrecked944]

I assumed the same thing until my buddy at ClarkU told me it was a valid observation. BTW, he also says a new problem on campus are "Helicopter Parents" - so called because they hover over their kids. Seems Clark has established a special "Parents Orientation" partly to get the parents away from their kids during regular freshman orientation. I don't know about you, but my parents never even considered attending my freshman orientation. He also knows a professor who hates giving out bad grades - not because the kids will be upset - but because every bad grade prompts an angry phone call from the parents.

Parents calling the prof to complain about bad grades? WTF?

Seems crazy but these observations are coming from the folks in the trenches - not talking head pundits.

[widebody911]

Reminds me of the 'conspicuous consumption' fad of the late 90's, with the cigar bars, "dress to impress" requirements at clubs, etc, etc.

[legion]

I moved out of Naperville to escape just this. When my 10-year high school reunion happens next year, I fully expect 50% of my class to still be living at home with mom and dad, earning $20-30k a year, and driving H2's and such.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Unfortunately I know 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds, and even 60-year-olds who live hand-to-mouth but have the latest bling.

[plain fan]

I don't know anyone like that. Of course I worked my way through college and got a degree in engineering so the people I associated with were not your standard college kids. I do know of a couple of people that lived with their parents but it was to get their feet on the ground running. One started a business, a couple others are doing it to save money towards a house, etc. While talking with my brother, who is in college, he mentioned several acquaintences that are just like the people mentioned in the article. I wish the article had mentioned where these people lived.

[Steeve]

I was a loan officer for many years, so I saw lots of this. You would be amazed at the number of people that spend $700-1,000 per month to drive their Lincoln Navigator, and spend $300 or less per month on rent. My underwriter would abuse me to no end every time I put a file like that on her desk. Talk about screwed up priorities...

But maybe we should question this author's credibility. Didn't he misspell Ketel One???

[dtw]

[FrayAdjacent911]

Holy ****! $250 for a pair of jeans?? I haven't paid more than maybe $35 or 40.

That's just insane. That guy in his $120 gunmetal shirt and $80 belt probably live in a cardboard box.

I'll go with my $30 shirt and $15 belt and have a nice apartment.