Yuppies in San Francisco (Stanford, London: attorneys, law school, high income)

[ATL89]

What is the "yuppie" stereotype in SF? I know that many resent the presence of yuppies in SF, but I'm curious who falls into that stereotype.

Anyone who's young and enjoys relatively high income and net worth? Sort of the "Stuff White People Like" demographic?

Or does it extend only to a certain subset of the above category? That is, the more 1980s definition of yuppie - white, fiscally conservative and socially liberal, white collar professional, etc.

[mayorhaggar]

There's a lot of people in their 20's who seem to have good jobs making a lot of money. I have no idea how they got these jobs since many of them can't be old enough to have anything but a BA or BS. There's also a lot of young attorneys just out of law school who luck into $100K+ jobs at big firms who live in SF for a few years before getting married and settling in the burbs. Same for a lot of industries, I guess if you have the right skills/education (probably went to Cal or Stanford, or have a master's or PhD in something in demand from a big name-brand school) and know the right people, you can get a job in SF making more money than you're probably worth.

[jade408]

So true. There are many young people in SF who lucked out at jobs in big companies or with deep pocketed startups. They have lots of disposable income at an age where they have few finiancial responsibilities.

[bigdumbgod]

Or they got lots of family money, and are good at spending it.

[sliverbox]

San Francisco is its own little world.

[UrbanAdventurer]

Originally Posted by ATL89

What is the "yuppie" stereotype in SF? I know that many resent the presence of yuppies in SF, but I'm curious who falls into that stereotype.

Anyone who's young and enjoys relatively high income and net worth? Sort of the "Stuff White People Like" demographic?

Or does it extend only to a certain subset of the above category? That is, the more 1980s definition of yuppie - white, fiscally conservative and socially liberal, white collar professional, etc.

SF is definitely more of a "Stuff white people like" brand of yuppie, if generalizations had to be made.

The later is more of a New York yuppie, again if generalizations had to be made.

[bluberry]

Originally Posted by ATL89

The more 1980s definition of yuppie - white, fiscally conservative and socially liberal, white collar professional, etc.

That is who I would describe as a yuppie. I lived in London in the 80s when the term was widely used to describe the brash, rich, stock market types who had lots of cash and very little "class".

Think Billionaire Boys Club.

Today's yuppies know that being loud and brash is not cool, so they tend to hide their yuppieness, but as Tony Hawk once said... a "bitchin’ tattoo cannot hide your inner desire to be Donald Trump."

But also being wealthy, driving a nice car and living in a nice house, does not make you a Yuppie.

wealth - social responsibility = Yuppie.

wealth + social responsibility = Lucky

[rah]

Originally Posted by sliverbox

San Francisco is its own little world.

Not as much as many people would like to think though. What brought that comment on anyways? Yuppies getting rich by working for startups? Yuppies who get rich off of family money? Yuppies in general? Because i'm pretty sure SF is not the only place with yuppies, and i'm also pretty sure it's not the only place with yuppies that get rich off of startups or their family.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by sliverbox

San Francisco is its own little world.

I agree, but it has nothing to do with yuppieness. In SF (and the bay in general) people are elitist about lots of stuff that isn't even on the radar for other parts of the country. Let's talk about food.

There is an actual food source hierarchy here:
organic trumps mass produced (conventional)
local trumps organic
organic and local trumps local
organic/local/small farm/artisan trumps everything

It is so crazy that restaurants name check farms and ingredients.

For every area of life, there is some sort of similar hierarchy associated with it. In most places the idea of consumerism and materialism are more connected to brands as status symbols. In the Bay the premium is places on source and production methods (and in some circles impact to the environment).

This is really evident in the food scene here (bars and restaurants) but similar ideals permeate everything.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by jade408

There is an actual food source hierarchy here:
organic trumps mass produced (conventional)
local trumps organic
organic and local trumps local
organic/local/small farm/artisan trumps everything

I'm no food snob, but I see this as a positive thing, one that ought to spread, especially given the rising price of energy and resource inputs used in conventional agriculture.