Economic precarity, not aesthetics, defined the millennial generation’s collective character

Evidence

Rather than unique aesthetics, however, millennials’ defining trait was their collective response to economic uncertainty. Living in a world of tech IPOs, Kardashian hustle, and celebrity entrepreneurs, millennials suffered from “relative deprivation”—the nagging sense that everyone else was getting rich. For many, the solution was more capitalism—but their kind of capitalism. Zuckerberg once used business cards that read “I’m CEO, bitch,” and now he was the twenty-ninth richest person in the world. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 307

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘relative deprivation’ as the mechanism behind millennial capitalism — useful working definition.