This reminds me of the "skip the avocado toast" comment by a certain Australian billionaire a few years ago. Young people in the US, Britain, and Australia have far less real wealth than the parents and grandparents, for the most part. A young person today in many cities would have to work hundreds of years just to afford buying a small house near where they live.
I thinks its the way capitalist societies seem to unravel because the focus is on things, houses, cars and mod coms and as we seen in the 80's it becomes a form of greed. That generation accumulated things and now those things especially real estate has become a luxury for a growing number of new generations.
There's a reason Millenials and Gen Z have made the canning jar their choice of glassware, their minimalism is being shaped by their material circumstances.
Yes but that is really a reinventing of an age old idea of minimalism. There is a long history of conservation and preservation. The idea of repurposing jars has been around for a long time such as for fruits and jams or even moonshine lol. I guess they had little choice that was just how life was. people sewed and repaired their own cloths, grew their own vegies and had to make ends do.
I guess because many just cannot afford to live in todays economy they are finding other ways to get by. I agree there has been an overdose of consumerism and now we are beginning to see how this is a never ending cycle of a temporary existence that never gets anywhere.
But I also think this is a return to a simpler way of life we have abandoned and are just rediscovering this in a new way. A time when family and community came first and those who had shared with those who were without. But I also suspect that the power of money and things hasn't run its course and in fact may be spreading as with globalization and big corps spreading the Western ideal to 3rd world nations.
We seem to be stuck on a vicious cycle and the only way out is to escape that cycle which a growing number are doing with communes, co-ops, off grid lifestyle. Now that houses are so expensive what other choice is there but to think outside the the very box that causes the problem.
I'd be unhappy too if I were told by a clueless billionaire that if I gave up my avocado toast, I could afford a home.
Yes its out of touch with todays reality. Theres the question of whether a rich person has inherited their wealth. But for many it came through hard work and sacrifice to be able to pass on their wealth. So perhaps the rich are speaking of how they began. But that doesn't help the majority who will never be rich many through no fault of their own. Or who just don't want to live their lives based on money.
Perhaps that is the problem that the idea of being rich, getting that well paying job, getting that house and creating a nest egg is the meaning of life.
Lack of spirituality isn't the major reason young people deal with unhappiness. They deal with unhappiness primarily because of a cruel neoliberal economic order they live under, and which has seized control of most institutions in our societies, an order that many Christians in the US and Britain championed.
Yet many young people live the benefit of those economics with the tech and standard of life they live today. Maybe that is what they are objecting too. But of so then they should not live as neoliberals live and create a new way. That has been the case for all generations.
The idea of enterprise, self support came from the idea that people had the freedom to utilize their talent and ability to create something for themselves. But then it went pear shaped and we lost the welfare state with everything privatized. But each generation faces these issues and can recreate a better situation.
The key is learning from our mistakes which I think we have trouble doing. Self interest seems to step in and people find it hard to give up their comfortable worlds. But how this relates to spirituality is that spirituality is about sacrificing and giving up the comforts of this world for something more transcendent. But if people don't think there is anything more transcendent than this world then thats going to be a hard ask.
