Some days ago I read an interview with one of the more important politicians in Germany's conservative party, where he complained about millenials not buying into consumerism as much, and also about his political opponents not protecting ye olde businesses enough from this trend. All I could think of was buggy whips: if your industry is not dying because someone invented a better and cheaper way to meet demands, but because there is no longer as much demand (if at all!), then, sorry, no, you do not deserve to be saved, or bailed out even.
Reminds me of the 2008 crash where people weren't buying cars. "Oh, awesome! They'll have to cut prices, so those who run a prudent budget will get good deals for not going along with the car-buying hype" -- no. Instead, the auto industry gets special attention and demand-propping, like Cash for Clunkers.
I feel the same way whenever people & news fixate on jobs, especially with regard to jobs being lost with the closure of large factories or other big employers. No, they do not exist to produce jobs. No, we shouldn't pour money and effort into unprofitable business just for the sake of jobs...
> if your industry is not dying because someone invented a better and cheaper way to meet demands, but because there is no longer as much demand (if at all!), then, sorry, no, you do not deserve to be saved, or bailed out even
...wait, WHAT?! so you'd imply that bailouts are instead for industries "dying because someone invented a better and cheaper way to meet demands"? so kinda like "let's use bailouts to discourage innovation instead?!" wtf.
Not that I like the "saving dying industries" idea much, but if there's any way it would make sense to apply it, it would be to pump-up/resurrect demand for things for which people may have temporarily lost taste for due to a recession, but now the recession is over, things are back up, so it's a good idea to accelerate growth by encouraging people to consume more of the expensive stuff they lost taste for!
(Though some kind of Universal Basic Income would be the most sensitive way to increase consumption imho: cover the needs of the poor a bit, and also give more to those who already have more than enough so they can burn the extra cash and accelerate economic life...)
P.S. Oh, and one of the lessons that millenials should be thought imho, would be that, paradoxical as it may seem, on the collective level, by spending less you're making yourselves poorer! Of course, the "on a collective level" is the part most people fail to grok...
I kind of agree with you, but there is the big question what to do with the employees of such industries, regarding re-qualification and employment opportunities.
Specially here where without a whole set of Zeugnis we are apparently unable to do a certain tasks.
I believe this is true in the United States also. I definitely have constant post code envy and look up houses all the time.
Housing costs a fortune for anything move in ready in any city/town that is desirable and I'm looking in the Southeast which would have been traditionally pretty cheap.
Like many GenXers I would have been happy to laugh at those silly Millennials but TFA has me convinced of their wisdom and good taste. With the exception of bar soap and the possible exception of Lowe's/Home Depot, I completely agree that society needs less of everything on this list.
Indeed, hard to imagine anyone really being upset by any of these industries disappearing. But easy to imagine that in the future people will be incredulous that many of them existed in the first place ("You bought a handbag for 30-times it's production cost, and it made you feel good?")
> While millennials like to workout, they're ditching gyms in favor of boutique, class-centric centers.
"Millennials don't want to be tied down," Megan Smyth, the CEO of FitReserve, a service that lets members book boutique studio classes, told the New York Post. "It's a spontaneous demographic."
Ditching 24 hour gyms where you can go whenever you feel like in exchange for booking classes is "spontaneous"???
> In late July, Goldman Sachs downgraded both Boston Beer Company and Constellation Brands based on data suggesting that younger consumers prefer wine and spirits to beer, as well as the fact that they're drinking less alcohol than older generations more generally.
Not to mention the number of breweries has grown from 2,751 in 2012, which was a record then, to 4,144 in the beginning of 2016.
Yea, I wondered if they even have accurate numbers for beer - you mention the doubling of breweries in the last few years - on a slightly larger timeline it's even more pronounced - it has gone from next to nothing in the last decade and shows little sign of slowing down: https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/number-of-brew...
>Instead, younger consumers are turning to convenient options with minimal cleanup that can be eaten on the go, from yogurt to fast-food breakfast sandwiches.
BusinessInsider reads more like Buzzfeed than ever before. (Millennials HATE these industries, and you won't believe number 8!) It's also no wonder the publishing industry is collapsing and is only still around because of aggressive advertisement tactics.
I'm surprised that cereal is on the list. The reason cited is that it's viewed as inconvenient. I eat cereal nearly every day because it's pretty much the laziest breakfast you can possibly make.
You're welcome, America. Will anyone really miss Buffalo Wild Wings? Or Golf? I suspect we drink just as much beer, it's just more craft beer than Sam Adams or Corona.
The 'Millennials don't like breasts' angle is a new take. I'd figured that one was a constant.
I think Millennials realize that they can see boobs any time they want, and don't need to go to a crappy, overpriced restaurant to ogle the topboob of a stressed, exploited, overworked waitress.
My guess is it's more along the lines of "male Millenials have realized that going to a restaurant explicitly to oggle the waitresses' breasts will make them appear crude to their peers"
Generation n has different preferences than generation n-1. Industries that don't adapt are going down, leaving the space for newer industries. That's the normal state of things.
So that they can cash in on generation n-1's dislike of generation n. Stating it as the obvious fact that it is doesn't sell newspapers or generate clicks.
I honestly don't even see such articles as negative. They're not destroying 'the economy', just a few businesses, by acting more frugally/efficiently. People don't serve 'the economy' - it's supposed to be the other way around. If parts of it are no longer needed, tough.
I notice that the napkin entry implicitly assumes disposable napkins. Given that it's often said that millennials value authenticity, I wonder if part of that decline can be attributed to cloth napkins, and the cited Washington Post article at least touches on that but doesn't seem to have any data. The beer entry similarly seems to disregard the explosion of popularity in microbrews.
Of course, like most such articles, this is really less about millennials' preferences than it is about our economic situation. For whatever reason, a lot of people seem to think that inflation ended in the 1970s and that we aren't all running out and buying houses because we lack an "ownership culture" or whatever.
I'm gen-X and would prefer to go out to dinner to a place with awesome food rather than a meh meal at a chain restaurant where they might just be microwaving everything that isn't grilled or fried.
Maybe because of the recession its more of a culture shift away from feeding the greed of corporate america?
Maybe people, of all ages, are just more aware of the details on things like handbags that are overpriced, overpriced bar food at Hooters, etc.
Maybe if we as a whole are more educated consumers, we consume less?
It is like with car sales: every time gas prices go up, people start buying Priuses, etc. But the minute gas prices come down, SUVs (the bigger, the better) are all the rage again.
[+] [-] cyxxon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SilasX|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clarry|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nnq|8 years ago|reply
...wait, WHAT?! so you'd imply that bailouts are instead for industries "dying because someone invented a better and cheaper way to meet demands"? so kinda like "let's use bailouts to discourage innovation instead?!" wtf.
Not that I like the "saving dying industries" idea much, but if there's any way it would make sense to apply it, it would be to pump-up/resurrect demand for things for which people may have temporarily lost taste for due to a recession, but now the recession is over, things are back up, so it's a good idea to accelerate growth by encouraging people to consume more of the expensive stuff they lost taste for!
(Though some kind of Universal Basic Income would be the most sensitive way to increase consumption imho: cover the needs of the poor a bit, and also give more to those who already have more than enough so they can burn the extra cash and accelerate economic life...)
P.S. Oh, and one of the lessons that millenials should be thought imho, would be that, paradoxical as it may seem, on the collective level, by spending less you're making yourselves poorer! Of course, the "on a collective level" is the part most people fail to grok...
[+] [-] pjmlp|8 years ago|reply
Specially here where without a whole set of Zeugnis we are apparently unable to do a certain tasks.
[+] [-] csmattryder|8 years ago|reply
Being priced completely out of the market is another way to say that, given the housing market in the UK.
A lack of guaranteed long-term disposable income explains most of the others; diamonds, annual gym membership contracts.
[+] [-] christophilus|8 years ago|reply
- Home-ownership is a giant pain and often a poor financial choice
- The diamond industry is corrupt, filled with human misery, and has artificially inflated prices
- Why pay for a gym when I can go hiking, walking, do yoga, and all the other exercises I like on my own for free?
[+] [-] stuaxo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danzig13|8 years ago|reply
Housing costs a fortune for anything move in ready in any city/town that is desirable and I'm looking in the Southeast which would have been traditionally pretty cheap.
[+] [-] ajc-sorin|8 years ago|reply
Businesses serve consumers - not the other way around. Perhaps if businesses realized this, they wouldn't be getting "killed."
[+] [-] bencoder|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kernelbandwidth|8 years ago|reply
"Did Millennials kill fashion?" one of those headlines reads.
No, I've seen what y'all did in the 80's and 90's. If Millennials killed fashion, it was a merciful death after that.
[+] [-] christophilus|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marmaduke|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] liberte82|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jessaustin|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adwhit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] THE_PUN_STOPS|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] x2398dh1|8 years ago|reply
Lazy Great Generation Wants To Ride In Cars Instead of Time-Tested Horse and Buggy!
Drug-Addled Baby Boomers Spend All Their Time Idiotically Punching Numbers Into Fax Machines Rather than Learning Moorse Code Like They Should Be!
[+] [-] Vendan|8 years ago|reply
Ditching 24 hour gyms where you can go whenever you feel like in exchange for booking classes is "spontaneous"???
[+] [-] falcolas|8 years ago|reply
Signing up for a Gym is a major financial commitment.
[+] [-] nkrisc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] humanrebar|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TYPE_FASTER|8 years ago|reply
Not to mention the number of breweries has grown from 2,751 in 2012, which was a record then, to 4,144 in the beginning of 2016.
[+] [-] matheweis|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lightbyte|8 years ago|reply
>Instead, younger consumers are turning to convenient options with minimal cleanup that can be eaten on the go, from yogurt to fast-food breakfast sandwiches.
Four entries down is:
>Yogurt — especially light yogurt
[+] [-] maaaats|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] zulln|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] princekolt|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] setrofim_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] davexunit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicktelford|8 years ago|reply
These industries are "dying" (or more accurately, declining) simply because they're failing to adapt to the changing nature of demand.
[+] [-] genocide_throw|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtcond13|8 years ago|reply
The 'Millennials don't like breasts' angle is a new take. I'd figured that one was a constant.
[+] [-] NoGravitas|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davexunit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m12k|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vkjv|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GuB-42|8 years ago|reply
So why present it in such a negative view?
[+] [-] robbrit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nxsynonym|8 years ago|reply
And not one mention to the dozens of industries Millennials created or helped take off.
[+] [-] DarkKomunalec|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xcde4c3db|8 years ago|reply
Of course, like most such articles, this is really less about millennials' preferences than it is about our economic situation. For whatever reason, a lot of people seem to think that inflation ended in the 1970s and that we aren't all running out and buying houses because we lack an "ownership culture" or whatever.
[+] [-] dozzie|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] westmeal|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] majewsky|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matt_s|8 years ago|reply
I'm gen-X and would prefer to go out to dinner to a place with awesome food rather than a meh meal at a chain restaurant where they might just be microwaving everything that isn't grilled or fried.
Maybe because of the recession its more of a culture shift away from feeding the greed of corporate america?
Maybe people, of all ages, are just more aware of the details on things like handbags that are overpriced, overpriced bar food at Hooters, etc.
Maybe if we as a whole are more educated consumers, we consume less?
[+] [-] jazzyk|8 years ago|reply
It is like with car sales: every time gas prices go up, people start buying Priuses, etc. But the minute gas prices come down, SUVs (the bigger, the better) are all the rage again.