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The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

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Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#61

Post by mercutio2 »

scandox wrote: post #27

There's a lazy optimism to this that I don't like. Educated, non-technical people, 30 and younger are struggling to find meaningful, well paid employment. That is a recipe for massive social change occurring rapidly. I'm 40 and a programmer, but I have a lot of non-technical friends in their 20s and 30s. Most of the smart ones are, at this point - intellectually - communists. Contrary to the general view, most of the…

What the heck does “intellectually communist” mean?

Are you somebody who defines any amount of redistribution as intrinsically communist? If so, I suspect what your term maps to in my lexicon is “a social democrat”.

If you mean “intellectually believes that by any means necessary we must transfer 100% of capital into the hands of the proletariat” then, OK, wow, I agree that’s communism.

The latter option seems unlikely to me, given that I lived for many many years on an actual commune with hundreds of extremely left leaning visitors per year, and I have literally never met anyone who believes in transferring all capital into the hands of the proletariat.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#62

Post by WhoIsSatoshi »

jp57 wrote: post #47

I'm having a hard time distinguishing "premium mediocre" from "bourgeois" as the term is applied to tastes and preferences. As with so many other neologisms, I think this concept is already amply covered in English's huge vocabulary.

premium mediocre has the aspiration for money, but none of the money. Bourgeoisie had the aspiration for taste and finer disposition, but they actually have the money.

The money is the difference, Premium Mediocre have none.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#64

Post by ZeroGravitas »

klenwell wrote: post #49
jancsika wrote: post #41

> When I tell them I made a bit of money investing, they think stocks, not blockchains. I’m not even going to try explaining bitcoin to them. They don’t need the aggravation. So many questions: 1) Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing? 2) Humans shouldn't be investing in Bitcoin unless they have money that is 100% disposable (which, judging by the tone of your blog, you do…

> Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing? Good question. What I've seen enough millenials to slightly alarm me is that they don't think stocks or blockchains but multi-level marketing schemes. Are they more susceptible to being drawn into these than any other cohort? I'd guess probably not (I remember seeing Amway jugs in my parents' garage as a kid), but with social media…

The current Secretary of Education is married into the family that built Amway. And her brother is currently trying to privatize the army. Interesting times.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#65

Post by ZenoArrow »

WhoIsSatoshi wrote: post #62
jp57 wrote: post #47

I'm having a hard time distinguishing "premium mediocre" from "bourgeois" as the term is applied to tastes and preferences. As with so many other neologisms, I think this concept is already amply covered in English's huge vocabulary.

premium mediocre has the aspiration for money, but none of the money. Bourgeoisie had the aspiration for taste and finer disposition, but they actually have the money. The money is the difference, Premium Mediocre have none.

Yes, that's what this premium mediocre concept seems to boil down to, something pretending to be more expensive than it actually is.

What irks me is that mediocre implies a lack of distinguishable quality, but this is separate from how much something costs. To use the avocado toast example given in the article, if the avocado toast is healthy and genuinely tasty, is it still mediocre? Are all cheap products like bread by nature 'mediocre'? I don't think so. This is where I see that the term falls down, it conflates price and quality where this relationship is not necessarily direct.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#66

Post by notyourwork »

arkh wrote: post #50
notyourwork wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're the cold, hard and calculating ones who fucked and are fucking over every other generation. Can you elaborate on how so? I don't agree or disagree because I don't understand how you feel the boomer generation fucked over everyone else?

Fucking over the previous generation: instead of taking care of your parents once they're old just put them in a "old people ready to die" home. Fucking over the next generation: up the requirements for jobs (education and experience) so it is harder for them to find one. Concentrate jobs in some huge cities and refuse new constructions so the rent can go up way more than salaries. In most countries setup a Ponzi sch…

> instead of taking care of your parents once they're old just put them in a "old people ready to die" home.

I don't want to sound ignorant but do we have any stats to back this up. Also, do we have an answer to how many of the boomer's parents didn't save enough to support themselves? I don't disagree but I also don't agree with this. In my family, my Dad's parents saved and diligently prepared for their later years. My Mom's parents did not.

So now I ask myself, am I expected to care for my parents in their later years? I don't think our generation expects to do so but personally I would do what I can for my family. However, I am not so sure that the boomers fucked us over by not caring for their parents. By not caring for their parents, how does this fuck us over exactly?

> up the requirements for jobs (education and experience) so it is harder for them to find one.

Is this the boomers fault? Each generation the requirements and expectations for jobs increase. Middle school teachers and police officers required to have masters degrees in some states and cities.

Some cities do have the housing problems you speak of, San Francisco comes to mind. However, this isn't a generalization that you can apply to an entire country or world. I am from a large midwest city that isn't plagued with this problem, is quite affordable and has lots of jobs.

I think you are taking a specific situation and applying it to an entire generation of people which I feel is unfair. I do agree however that you raise some discussion points.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#67

Post by scandox »

mercutio2 wrote: post #61
scandox wrote: post #27

There's a lazy optimism to this that I don't like. Educated, non-technical people, 30 and younger are struggling to find meaningful, well paid employment. That is a recipe for massive social change occurring rapidly. I'm 40 and a programmer, but I have a lot of non-technical friends in their 20s and 30s. Most of the smart ones are, at this point - intellectually - communists. Contrary to the general view, most of the…

What the heck does “intellectually communist” mean? Are you somebody who defines any amount of redistribution as intrinsically communist? If so, I suspect what your term maps to in my lexicon is “a social democrat”. If you mean “intellectually believes that by any means necessary we must transfer 100% of capital into the hands of the proletariat” then, OK, wow, I agree that’s communism. The latter option seems unlike…

Well by "intellectually" I meant to indicate that they were not actually practising Communism :). By Communist I was covering a lot of different things I've observed:

1. Perfectly intelligent and reasonable people wearing Lenin badges

2. People talking without irony about "dismantling the Capitalist system"

3. People who actively engage with Marxist ideas and view Marx as a thinker with ideas that are readily applicable in the current political climate.

There's certainly Hyperbole in what I said. I would view even much lesser things as a bit "Commie" but I'm coming from a very different background. They would view me as a neo-liberal or a Centrist depending - I don't really know if I am...but sure you get what you get and you don't get upset...

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#68

Post by finnh »

colefichter wrote: post #57
flachsechs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the rate of downward mobility among my young, bourgeoisie 20-somethings friends in NYC is shocking i dunno, i'd argue these people aren't downwardly mobile because they were never upper middle class to begin with (bourgeoisie). if you have no saved money and your family can't just straight up give you money to live if you lose your job, you're lower to lower middle at best. better luck next time, etc. and if the pa…

Your post hits the nail on the head, but complicates things more than needed. The whole idea of "middle class" is a fiction that supports the behaviours discussed in the article. In the real world, it doesn't actually exist in any meaningful way. You're either working class or you're not. If you can walk away from your job today and never look back, congrats! You're not working class. But for everyone else, you're st…

I'm not sure about that, because there is such a huge range of "need to work" lives.

Taking it for granted that everything but "upper class" means "has to work", it's still worth drawing distinctions amongst the non-upper-classes. Those differences do exist in very meaningful ways, all the way down to life expectancy.

You can't just trivialize away the difference between "college? how the fuck would I afford that?" and "it's 100% expected that I'll go, and my parents can pay the entire thing with zero debt".

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#69

Post by robotresearcher »

_mhyx wrote: post #11

This is kind of meandering, and it loses the thread a bit in the end (it feels like he's getting to a point he's uncomfortable with ideologically), but it's extremely accurate. The bigger point about creating the future - that he seems to miss - is that it's a future _not everyone wants_, which drives a huge part of the "maga/bernie" divide he discusses. He is right though - the rate of downward mobility among my you…

The US employment rate is so high that the risk of being long-term unemployed is pretty low, outside some special groups and places (e.g. coal miners, coal towns).

Interest rates are also historically low.

Thus the effective discount rate on money is super low. It's a good time to take a European vacation, particularly when you are young and child free. It's gonna cost a lot more later, and you might be less secure, not more.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#70

Post by [deleted] »

finnh wrote: post #68
colefichter wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post hits the nail on the head, but complicates things more than needed. The whole idea of "middle class" is a fiction that supports the behaviours discussed in the article. In the real world, it doesn't actually exist in any meaningful way. You're either working class or you're not. If you can walk away from your job today and never look back, congrats! You're not working class. But for everyone else, you're st…

I'm not sure about that, because there is such a huge range of "need to work" lives. Taking it for granted that everything but "upper class" means "has to work", it's still worth drawing distinctions amongst the non-upper-classes. Those differences do exist in very meaningful ways, all the way down to life expectancy. You can't just trivialize away the difference between "college? how the fuck would I afford that?" a…

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