De-Gentrification

In a recent NY Times article, the recession is hitting hipsters where it hurts: right in Mom and Dad's bank account. Parents who are subsidizing their twentysomething children can't afford it anymore, so these kids are either forced to leave Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or actually have to get jobs. After all, those Urban Outfitters clothes cost a lot.

Even though it's easy to feel snarky about people who don't really work and have the money to make it look like they don't have money, this article leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I know a lot of twentysomethings, and most people are genuinely trying to get jobs. A lot of us have been laid off. We don't tend to storm out of interviews after hearing about 8-hour workdays. Sure, I can imagine kids who don't want to work real jobs, but that's not the average twentysomething. Many of us would love to have jobs that enrich our lives, but mostly, right now we would just like to have jobs.

I hope that the twentysomethings can use the recession to shirk this image of a lazy, disaffected hipster. Not everyone under thirty is a pretentious, coddled overgrown child. Hopefully we can use this tough economic time to show previous generations that we can work hard while simultaneously enjoying life and having a larger social awareness.