Gold-Collar Generation
 

http://www.freep.com/features/livin...5d_20050715.htm

Generation gold-collar lives big, and at home

July 15, 2005






BY MARK DE LA VINA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS



SAN JOSE, Calif. -- They find solace in $325 Christian Dior sunglasses, a shot of confidence in a $600 Louis Vuitton handbag. Never mind that they still live with their parents and earn modest salaries in service jobs.


Are you gold-collar?
You know you're gold-collar if you answer true:

1) You are 18 to 25 years old.
--True
--False

2) You live with your parents.
--True
--False

3) You passed on college and work full time in a service or retail job, such as at the cosmetics counter at Macy's.
--True
--False

4) Your pastimes include clubbing, shopping and pampering (pedicures and manicures).
--True
--False

5) You prefer high-end brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
--True
--False

6) You drink pricey cocktails made from top-shelf liquor (Grey Goose vodka, Hennessy cognac) instead of domestic beer.
--True
--False

7) You have a top-of-the-line iPod or the best-equipped cell phone, complete with camera, chirp function and assorted downloads.
--True
--False

8) Your idea of saving money is setting aside $200 for a new pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.
--True
--False

9) Your dream, spoken or not, is to become a celebrity.
--True
--False

10) Your primary source of information is celebrity magazines, such as Us and In Style.
--True
--False

"Work It! Understanding Working Class Youth in America," by Synovate research firm


For these working-class young adults, luxury is not just for the rich. Just ask Danielle Garcia, a receptionist at Kaiser Permanente who is in the midst of planning her lavish 24th birthday bash for 75 friends at the trendy Vault nightclub in downtown San Jose, Calif.


She and her pals don't know it, but they're part of a new niche that marketers say is growing: the gold-collar generation, blue-collar's glitzy counterpart.


"I'm really in awe of name-brand things," said Garcia, who moved back in with her parents to pay off credit-card debt. "I want to feel glamorous."


The appetite for designer labels and anything associated with celebrity has helped push luxury sales in the United States to $525 billion last year, up from $450 billion in 2003. By 2010, Americans are expected to spend $1 trillion on luxury goods, according to Michael Silverstein, co-author of "Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods" (Portfolio Hardcover, $26.95).


The gold-collar contingent, ages 18 to 25, is doing its part by downing $12 Kettle One vodka martinis and sporting the sleekest rims on their Lincoln Navigators. To sustain a lifestyle inspired by rap videos and pop culture magazines such as Us, they spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on expensive brand-name products and services.


For many, any interest in college and pursuing a career beyond retail or service industry is deferred, even abandoned, in order to maintain champagne tastes on a beer budget, said Ian Pierpoint, a senior vice president at the Chicago research firm Synovate.


"This is the best-dressed, least-able, least-equipped generation ever," Pierpoint said. "If you're 24 or 25 and you're still at home, you're not doing a lot of things, like paying your own utilities. They are in some ways very experienced, but they are more coddled than other generations."


There were about 20 million young people who could be categorized as working-class in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's more than half of the 18-to-25 population. In a phone survey of blue-collar adults within that age range, Synovate found that more than a third are what they have dubbed "gold-collar."


Garcia has never heard of the term, but her lifestyle and spending habits fit the bill: She once exchanged $305 Chanel sunglasses for $325 Christian Dior shades because a friend had bought the same pair. The owner of more than 100 pairs of shoes, Garcia built the theme of her birthday party around the Al Pacino gangster film "Scarface." The invitations read "The World Is Yours," a reference to the catchphrase that inspired Pacino's character to embark on a crime spree rooted in entitlement.


Garcia said her taste for excess is part fashion sense, part love of glitz.


"I want everyone to look at me. I want to have a lot of attention," she said. "I realize how shallow it sounds, but you know what? It's just what I like. I can't help what I like."


Jason Leong, 24, a makeup artist at Stila Cosmetics in San Jose, said he's more charged by the thrill of a new trinket than the attention it generates. He holds up his right wrist to show off a prized find, a canvas Christian Dior bracelet.


"This one was $180," he said, "but it makes me happy, so it's worth it."


Leong has tried to cut back on his high-end purchases from a year ago, reducing his $1,000-a-month spending budget, which was 60% of his take-home salary, to about $400 a month. He now sets aside $25 a week toward the purchase of a house so that he can move out of his father's place in Hayward, Calif.


When he walked into the Hugo Boss store at Valley Fair on a recent shopping jaunt, three salespeople gave him a nod and acknowledged him by name.


"This," he said, "is where I go when I want to spend money."


On this day of assembling an outfit for a wedding he buys a $120 gun-metal gray shirt and an $80 black leather belt. Though Leong is more restrained than some of his gold-collar contemporaries, he recently also shelled out $55 on Osmotics anti-oxidant for his eyes and $250 on a pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.


Tony Rodriguez, an intervention specialist for Catholic Charities in San Jose, encounters gold-collar youth through his work with a young men's support group. He said it's no secret why they try to emulate celebrities.


"You might not be able to live the life of Sean (P. Diddy) (Combs," he said. "But for a day, you can wear his $200 Sean John outfit and have that glow. You can have that star shine wearing that."


As a result, many young adults, he said, are more interested in stocking up on today's hot accessories than in investing time in an education or career that will pay off down the road.


"It's not that going to school is too hard," he said, "it's that it's not easy enough."

dude

where did they dig up these people to interview.

A punch in the face will change their outlook in a hurry.

I'm now officially concerned for this nation's future. I'm not much older than these kids, but couldn't be more different from them.

Why do the parents facilitate this crap?

By the way...you may want to change the title of the thread.

Are there really that many young adults skipping college to jump straight into full-time service jobs? I thought college was still the thing to do.

Being just over 30 myself, I really wonder what this will do to my retirement savings. People are warning about the Baby-Boomers taking their money out of the market as they retire, and these gold-collar people seem to be not saving anything, so I have to wonder if the stock market is a worthwhile place to keep retirement savings. Is it time to bail out and go the bond route?

Agreed, Wolfpack. I'm on the upper end of the spectrum (24) and that is a vastly different lifestyle than the one I lead.

Because you are not allowed to tech kids things these days. You can't mark their school papers with red ink, you can't tell them that they are wrong with an answer, you are not allowed to give them a failing grade if they really screw up, you can't even keep score in their little-league games anymore. Kids are being way too protected and they are being given way too many toys because the parents grew up in such a booming economy and have lots of money. Kids don't know what it is like to fail, or to lose, or to have to fend for themselves. Because parents are trying so hard to be their friends and not their parents, kids don't have to learn what the real world is like.

In my day, I had to walk to school....uphill........both ways. We ate gravel for lunch....and we liked it. :)

Only if you believe that there will come a time where no one (individuals or corporate entities) will want to invest in U.S. companies. Personally, I think that's rather unlikely. There may come a time when U.S. equities don't see the same kind of growth we've been used to, but by then we'll all be investing in foreign equities.

Guess he really doesn't want to move out any time soon.

Maybe he's looking to buy in rural North Dakota?

face, fist, punch.

There's my idea for a new reality show.

Kick 20 of these fucks out of mommy and daddy's house, cut them off, tell them they are fending for themselves from here on out.

Hilarity ensues.

30 minutes of punching them in the face would be a sure fire hit.

That would be the series finale.

Make sweet love to the hot ones.

Punch the rest.

Ahh, the joys of working at a market research firm--you can come up with unoriginal BS terms like "Gold Collar" or "Security Moms" that make absolutely no sense...

My veins are pulsing with rage over this.

Professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari espouses the mores of the gold collar generation through his Rocks and Rings philosophy.

that is the gayest thing I've ever seen.

he should be relegated to the moon.

No way. That site is totally 1.4.

How can I arrange it to have Doyle Brunson beat him repeatedly with his cane?

This is idiotic. I'm going home to tell my kids they're done living at home when they're 18. Me and mom want to have sex whenever we want dammit.

Old people sex (and with mom, to boot), eeewww on so many levels.

And you had kids.

Interesting choice.

Not any more. I'm cut. Worst operation in my life but the results were great.

I thought it had been officially designated, "The Entitlement Generation", but I guess both will do.

Wow you had it easy.

At Christmas we saved the tinsel off the tree to make soup.

Or Nascar Dads.

Tinsel? We dreamed of having tinsel. In my house we couldn't afford a tree, since you couldn't fit one in our section of the gutter.

I think we need a diagram of your childhood.

Wow. Antonio Esfandiari is part of the gold collars up generation.

with your mom?

Ahahahhahahah....*silent-can't-breathe laughing*....hahahaha....*lowers head into left arm and pounds taple with right fist while still laughing*

A hundred bucks a month. What kid of house do you buy by saving $100 a month!?

*continues laughing*

Oh man.....

And my friend's sister and her best freind (and for awhile her boyfriend) are EXACTLY like these people. We have good laughs over their stupidity.

The Gold Collar Generation - thank god - can now Ask Antonio...

Dear Antonio,

What's up Antonio?

I just wanted to say that you have been a huge inspiration for me. I tend to lack confidence, even though I have a lot going for me: girls seem to find me hot, I drive a Porsche, I just graduated in mechanical engineering... Still man, I'm very shy and seeing someone like you living life at its fullest just makes me wants to change completely. Your advice on how to play high stakes tournaments and how to pick up girls is exactly right. I won't be afraid anymore and I won't settle for second. Hearing it from you (good person, excellent poker player, lucky with the ladies) makes it that much sweeter. Not only will your advice improve my poker game, but my life in general I'm sure.

Thanks man, you're the best and I really look up to you.

Your #1 fan,

Alexx from Montreal

---------

Wow, Alexx,

What can I say? All this time I thought I was just playing poker and here I'm changing people's lives. Well, okay, man. Keep on keepin' on. Life's a party and you're on the VIP list.

It wasn't much of a tree. In fact it was just a piece of wilted lettuce. But it was a tree to us!

He doesn't have a job, yet drives a Porsche? Of course, you could always lease them now, or it could be one that is old as hell. Also, The girls find him hot, or the Porsche hot which he just happens to be driving?

I'm not a stock market expert, but I wouldn't be overly worry. As long as we keep buying, it shouldn't be too bad. Also, international markets will likely take over as well (India, China, ect.).

My children are going to have such an advantage over these panty waisted wimpy kids.

What was the original title of this thread?

The sad thing is one of my best friend's from childhood is part of this phenomenon. Well, he is 31 and still living at home. However, everything else fits this profile.

Blue-Collar Generation

I changed it, I meant to put "Gold-Collar". The one good thing is it does keep our economy moving.

Same here, one of my closest friends (though we aren't as close due to college, differnet paths and life ideas) is 22, lives at home, yet just bought a brand new Envoy, spends hundreds on the sunglasses and cellphones, the top-of-the-line computers, vacations nearly every month (which has to kill him at work) that satelite radio, and prolly makes $30-$35 a year tops. Dates a much older women (late 20s, divorced with a kid), who pays for alot of gifts for him. Keeps telling me hes gonna get a new 'Vette and move out.

The smart thing is to take advantage of the stupid miskates and make a nice living off it.

I thought these kids were just called spoiled brats?

Maybe Antonio can make himself disappear. It's the only solution.

As I said in another thread, I make seven figures a year, counting the numbers after the decimal point.

:D

A lttle off-topic, but I found this interesting and funny:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...und_the_globe/


Lawyers' testy e-mails bounce around the globe
By Andrew Ryan, Associated Press Writer | February 17, 2006

BOSTON --An e-mail can be like a boomerang. What flutters off harmlessly into cyberspace, can dart across the world and come rushing back with vengeance.

Just ask Boston lawyers William A. Korman and Dianna L. Abdala.

An e-mail spat between them bounced around the world, found its way into blogs and eventually landed on the front page of The Boston Globe.

"It certainly wasn't my intention for something like that to happen," Korman, 36, told The Associated Press. "I'm sure she feels the same way. But I do think that it's important lesson about what should and what shouldn't be put in an e-mail."

Abdala, 24, a 2004 graduate of Suffolk University Law School, confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail exchange to the Globe, and described herself as "trust fund baby" who decided that she couldn't keep "living off daddy" forever. There was no answer at a Boston-area telephone listing for her Friday.

She responded to a help wanted ad for Korman & Associates. After two interviews, Korman offered a job and thought that Abdala accepted.

Then an e-mail dinged in his inbox at 9:23 p.m. on Feb. 3.

".... the pay you are offering would neither fulfill me nor support the lifestyle I am living ..." Abdala wrote. "I have decided instead to work for myself, and reap 100% of the benefits that I sew (sic)."

Korman fired back the following Monday. He wrote that that Abdala's e-mail, "smacks of immaturity and is quite unprofessional." He had already ordered stationary and business cards and set up a computer programmed with her e-mail.

Abdala shot back: "A real lawyer would have put the contract into writing."

Seventeen minutes later, Korman hit the send button again: "Thank you for the refresher course on contracts ... You need to realize that this is a very small legal community, especially the criminal defense bar."

"Do you really want to start (angering) more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your career?" he wrote.

In 11 minutes, Abdala had a three word response: "bla bla bla."

The exchange stopped there, but Korman forwarded the string to a colleague. The Internet did the rest.

Abdala told the Globe she has no regrets about the exchange, but said she believes it was "unprofessional and unethical" of Korman to forward her e-mail to a third party. She said felt his remark about Boston's small legal community was threatening.

Korman told the Globe he intended no threat and doesn't see what is unethical about passing on an e-mail that was not from a client.

The causal, lowercase feel of e-mail can give people a false sense of privacy and lull writers into ethical lapses, and W. Michael Hoffman, executive director of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Waltham.

"A lot of times we put things in e-mail that we wouldn't put in a letter or say to someone face to face," Hoffman said. "I think it can get us in trouble when he don't realize how permanent and public it can become."