Millennial and Gen Z economic malaise is creating a ‘treat culture’ as they turn to tiny purchases for a dose of daily escapism

1srelluc

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Nov 21, 2021
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Looking forward to a treat is a tale as old as time, or at least as old as capitalism. It’s the delayed gratification game: After eating broccoli you can have curly fries, once you finish crying over math homework you can watch TV, when work is over you can have fun—and maybe there’ll be a couple years of retirement you can squeeze in before you hit the can. Now, in the digital age, the concept of treating yourself has become a staple among young adults looking to make today’s economic stress go down more smoothly.

That’s because being an adult doesn’t seem to have the promise of agency and purpose it once did. At the risk of sounding like Debbie Downer at Disney, millennials and older Gen Zers are doing the non-fun adult things like working without the added benefits of being able to afford a house, much less a comfortable life or even a world that isn’t subject to the chaos of climate change, political extremism, and a pandemic. Why not get a treat—maybe some ice cream, a little plant, or even a Garfield phone—to wash the bitter taste of reality all down?
That’s how Gen Z and millennials are dealing with their difficult economic reality. Younger generations, who lost multiple key years to a locked-down pandemic world, have noticed life is short. Their response: Buy the treat, and lose the pretense that it’s a bad thing.


LOL....That article is literally "boomers used to have a work/life balance.....Now smart millennials are shaking things up by having a work/life balance." :laughing0301:

And they just had to put an unattractive mixed-ethnicity lesbians picture in the article. Sigh, it’s so tiresome.
 
America made a serious mistake in the 1990’s when who opened free trade with china and embraced NAFTA

That resulted in a lost American Dream for future generations of Americans
 
America made a serious mistake in the 1990’s when who opened free trade with china and embraced NAFTA

That resulted in a lost American Dream for future generations of Americans
It was off-shoring that was a serious mistake, this hollowed out middle America and took jobs away from people.
 
IDK, people sure seemed just as focused on consumption and treating themselves back in the 1950’s.


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IDK, people sure seemed just as focused on consumption and treating themselves back in the 1950’s.


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The difference is they saved S&H green stamps or saved....No such thing as a credit card.....No instant gratification. Folks lived within their means and saved for what they wanted.

You know what a treat for me was in the late 50s.....A raw beef hot dog on grocery day.

Mom had a $12.00 budget for a weeks worth of groceries. That's like $125.00 in today's money so yeah you could get by on that but there was not much extra for "treats"......Thank goodness we usually had wild game and fresh caught fish and the garden in the summer.

Remember those Victory Gardens of the WW-2 era.....Yeah, our whole back yard was a garden.

LOL.....I still snag me a raw beef hot dog from the package even today. ;)
 
Looking forward to a treat is a tale as old as time, or at least as old as capitalism. It’s the delayed gratification game: After eating broccoli you can have curly fries, once you finish crying over math homework you can watch TV, when work is over you can have fun—and maybe there’ll be a couple years of retirement you can squeeze in before you hit the can. Now, in the digital age, the concept of treating yourself has become a staple among young adults looking to make today’s economic stress go down more smoothly.

That’s because being an adult doesn’t seem to have the promise of agency and purpose it once did. At the risk of sounding like Debbie Downer at Disney, millennials and older Gen Zers are doing the non-fun adult things like working without the added benefits of being able to afford a house, much less a comfortable life or even a world that isn’t subject to the chaos of climate change, political extremism, and a pandemic. Why not get a treat—maybe some ice cream, a little plant, or even a Garfield phone—to wash the bitter taste of reality all down?
That’s how Gen Z and millennials are dealing with their difficult economic reality. Younger generations, who lost multiple key years to a locked-down pandemic world, have noticed life is short. Their response: Buy the treat, and lose the pretense that it’s a bad thing.


LOL....That article is literally "boomers used to have a work/life balance.....Now smart millennials are shaking things up by having a work/life balance." :laughing0301:

And they just had to put an unattractive mixed-ethnicity lesbians picture in the article. Sigh, it’s so tiresome.

People have always done this. Gen Z and millennials have to give it a cutesy name and make like they invented the entire thing because...that's what they do
 

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