Is anyone here a Yuppie brave enough to come out of the closet? (Chicago: home, vs.)

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by NSX

I would call myself as close to opposite of a yuppie as you can get, for being a young-professional in his late 20's with a six figure income.

I’m not in love with DC, NY, SF, Seattle etc, and chose to go to Tampa Bay and take a lower salary to get away from the yuppie craziness. I see no point in designer clothes and I never spend more than $30 at a restaurant. I love beaches and fast cars, and hate museums and coffee shops. I chose to own Corvettes, Vipers, and motorcycles instead of BMWs and Mercedes' as a status symbol to impress fellow yuppies.

Most of all, I'm not ashamed of my blue-collar roots and I am proud to be an American. I take pride in using hard work and intelligence to move forward in life, not dishonesty and brown-nosing. I only wish that more young and educated Americans wouldn't buy in to this yuppie/starbucks crap so much.

Well that's just a bunch of crap.

"Yuppie" actually refers to a very specific age group from about 1977-1986 that lived in the suburbs and drove into the city (or in California's case, nearby urban area) every day.

More specifically, it referred to Californians.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by coldwine

Well that's just a bunch of crap.

"Yuppie" actually refers to a very specific age group from about 1977-1986 that lived in the suburbs and drove into the city (or in California's case, nearby urban area) every day.

More specifically, it referred to Californians.

The term enjoys a wider meaning today. Not that I'm sure your story is accurate anyway, I was around when the term started and it referred to Baby Boomers who were starting to make it and lived in the city not the suburbs and followed a certain trendy way of life.

And I'm unaware of any specific California meaning to the term. Maybe the term started there but if so it quickly grew to have a broader meaning. But such things will happen in language.

To me the term bespeaks a certain superficiality and artifice, the yuppie believes that owning an Audi rather than a Buick makes him different in some important and fundamental way. Two guys can do the same job and live in the same neighborhood but one guy's a yuppie and the other's a regular guy. Most of the white collar people I've known would not qualify to me as yuppies.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by NSX

I would call myself as close to opposite of a yuppie as you can get, for being a young-professional in his late 20's with a six figure income.

I’m not in love with DC, NY, SF, Seattle etc, and chose to go to Tampa Bay and take a lower salary to get away from the yuppie craziness. I see no point in designer clothes and I never spend more than $30 at a restaurant. I love beaches and fast cars, and hate museums and coffee shops. I chose to own Corvettes, Vipers, and motorcycles instead of BMWs and Mercedes' as a status symbol to impress fellow yuppies.

Most of all, I'm not ashamed of my blue-collar roots and I am proud to be an American. I take pride in using hard work and intelligence to move forward in life, not dishonesty and brown-nosing. I only wish that more young and educated Americans wouldn't buy in to this yuppie/starbucks crap so much.

This post is a sterling example of how the blue-collar world can have its own form of snobbery. "I drive Corvettes to show everyone I'm a real American! Not llike you dishonest, brown-nosing, Starbucks-sipping, BMW-driving white-collar folk!" Get over yourself.

[ajolotl]

... and you once read the entire dictionary just because you like the smell of leather.

You are ... the most interesting person in the world!

Actually, you are extremely similar to the yuppie stereotype you just invented -- incredibly self-absorbed. Yes, get over yourself.

Originally Posted by NSX

I would call myself as close to opposite of a yuppie as you can get, for being a young-professional in his late 20's with a six figure income.

I’m not in love with DC, NY, SF, Seattle etc, and chose to go to Tampa Bay and take a lower salary to get away from the yuppie craziness. I see no point in designer clothes and I never spend more than $30 at a restaurant. I love beaches and fast cars, and hate museums and coffee shops. I chose to own Corvettes, Vipers, and motorcycles instead of BMWs and Mercedes' as a status symbol to impress fellow yuppies.

Most of all, I'm not ashamed of my blue-collar roots and I am proud to be an American. I take pride in using hard work and intelligence to move forward in life, not dishonesty and brown-nosing. I only wish that more young and educated Americans wouldn't buy in to this yuppie/starbucks crap so much.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Drover

This post is a sterling example of how the blue-collar world can have its own form of snobbery .

Yeah, Redwing shoes, Carhartt clothes, mill jackets, American Bridge hardhats and hot-mill gloves from Blue Collar Supply. Dress for success.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by aragx6

The opposite of a young urban professional would be an old, country, blue collar worker.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of a yuppie per se, but some yuppies don't give a crap about the neighborhoods they move into, the people they see on a daily basis and they judge others based on what coach purse they're carrying around this week.

...And they tear down perfectly lovely bungalows.

To be fair, there are plenty of other demographic groups who don't give a crap about the neighborhoods they move into either.

Anyone who tears down a perfectly lovely bungalow should be shot! Why the heck would anyone do that

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by BRU67

To be fair, there are plenty of other demographic groups who don't give a crap about the neighborhoods they move into either.

Anyone who tears down a perfectly lovely bungalow should be shot! Why the heck would anyone do that

Growing up in Pittsburgh I never really seen too many bungalows. In fact, I was in my mid 20's before I knew what one was. Chicago does have some nice brick ones. Especially the ones the have that octogan shape. But other than those ones, bungalows are ugly pieces of crap!

They should all be tore down (except the brick ones)!........

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by NSX

I would call myself as close to opposite of a yuppie as you can get, for being a young-professional in his late 20's with a six figure income.

I’m not in love with DC, NY, SF, Seattle etc, and chose to go to Tampa Bay and take a lower salary to get away from the yuppie craziness. I see no point in designer clothes and I never spend more than $30 at a restaurant. I love beaches and fast cars, and hate museums and coffee shops. I chose to own Corvettes, Vipers, and motorcycles instead of BMWs and Mercedes' as a status symbol to impress fellow yuppies.

Most of all, I'm not ashamed of my blue-collar roots and I am proud to be an American. I take pride in using hard work and intelligence to move forward in life, not dishonesty and brown-nosing. I only wish that more young and educated Americans wouldn't buy in to this yuppie/starbucks crap so much.

Give this guy a f***ing medal. A true saint in the making.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Drover

This post is a sterling example of how the blue-collar world can have its own form of snobbery. "I drive Corvettes to show everyone I'm a real American! Not llike you dishonest, brown-nosing, Starbucks-sipping, BMW-driving white-collar folk!" Get over yourself.

Yep. He's an elitist in a sort of neo-fascist nationalist weirdo kind of way.

For many years now I've been a professional with one foot tied to the trades. Before I went to architecture school I worked public works, and had a job once in the city government of another midwestern city inspecting sewer and roads projects. I remember pulling up to a project with a surveyor who pointed out that "you ain't s*** in construction if you don't drive an extended cab". These construction guys had $45,000 trucks all tricked out and shined up, but would scoff at someone who preferred a less-expensive BMW 3-series. I'm no scrawny pencil neck, but I used to get called "college boy" and crap like that on a regular basis. It's worse as an architect on a construction site. You can just feel the hatred.

It's especially strange to me because I am only two generations removed from farmers and factory workers. My wife is one generation removed (her mom grew up on a farm, and her dad was an iron worker before college). I spent about ten years of my youth in a very blue collar environment, and have no belief that any type of person is better than another. But it's amazing that class distinctions can emerge within families themselves, and the things we use to separate ourselves from one another are almost entirely material and bull****.

[OyCrumbler]

When I hear yuppie used in a derogatory way, it's almost always been directed at young urban professionals who live with a certain sense of entitlement. It's the people who are blatantly rude and too self-absorbed to understand they're being rude and confine themselves to a certain sociocultural group and ignore anything outside of their world. This is not to say all young urban professionals are like this or that people of other types aren't like this--however, having youth and wealth in the diverse city does seem to orient people a certain way.

A recent example I've seen is a young professional stepping on a poor old woman's foot on a street corner while talking on the phone, and when the woman said excuse me and tried to remove her foot, the man glared at her while he said sorry as disingenuously as possible.