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Gentrification of Chicago
In the 1980s, following the end of the Vietnam War, Americans started to shift towards rebuilding their countries. The influx of young and professional white-collar workers who were doing finance, legal and accounting work started gentrifying different cities like Chicago and New York City areas. This gentrification process also brought about the rise of the young urban professionals who were termed as Yuppies. -
The rise of Yuppies
Followed by the end of the Vietnam War, According to Wikipedia, the word "Yuppies" first appeared in Chicago Magazine in 1980 based on an article written by a columnist named Dan Rottenberg. Yuppies means "Young Urban Professionals." The term was used to describe those young and talented individuals who were the rising stars of the corporate world, earning good salaries, dressing up formally, eating good food and enjoying an above-average lifestyle. -
From Yippie to Yuppie
In 1983, the columnist Bob Greene put a headline titled "From Yippie to Yuppie", which described a business networking group, the Youth International Party (YIP) found by Jerry Rubin. Jerry Rubin dressed like the hippies and because he was affiliated to the YIP, thus he was termed as Yippies. As he started to dress and act more maturely, he was then coined as a Yuppie. -
Yuppies gaining popularity
In 1984, Marissa Piesman and Marliee Hartley co-authored the book named "The Yuppie Handbook". This book provides a satirical view of the young and well educated young people in the 1980s. As the elites of the society, they dressed well, ate healthy food and filled their schedules fully to make use of their precious time. Although this book was written with the satirical style, it revealed some of the elite culture among the young urban professionals at that time. -
Year of the Yuppies
In 1984, the Newsweek magazine labeled that year as the year of Yuppies. This reflected the increasing influential of young professionals in the political landscape of America. These young professionals were career-oriented, well educated and having a hedonistic lifestyle. They were politically liberal and formed the elite in the society. -
Ronald Regan, the Yuppie President
In 1984, Ronald Regan together with his partner, Vice President George HW Bush successfully gained the second term of his presidency. He was termed as the Yuppie President, partly due to his glamour as perceived as the relatively energetic president, he was also dressed well and resembled professionals of the 1980s. -
Crash of the Stock Market
On the black Monday on 1 Oct 1987, the United States Stock Market crashed and caused a large evaporation of wealth of individuals. With this, Yuppies were to blame and people connected their social status with the demise of this stock market cycle. The term "Yuppie" had since been subsided from the society. -
Yuppie culture keeps on
With the aftermath of the stock market crash in the 1990, despite Yuppies were a part to be blamed, some research stated that the Yuppies were hardly hit badly due to their smart and elite circle who came back quickly. The Yuppie culture continued. -
The resurgent of yuppie with dot.com bubble
With technology and the internet advanced to new stage, part of the Yuppie culture turned to the technology sector. Young entrepreneurs started to rise to the spot light and gained big money from the raise of capital from the stock market. Those who got the quick money kept on their extravagant life style and there was a resurgent of the Yuppie culture. -
Stock market frenzy
The stock market frenzy and the technology leap had continued to fuel the yuppie culture. Overtime, those Yuppie in the technology sector did not wear the same types of clothing as their 1980s counterpart. They looked more casual but more energetic. -
Leman Brother stock crash
The Leman Brother stock crash created one of the largest bank run and federal action in history. The yuppies were to be blamed again for their greed and irresponsible wrap up in the stock market -
Donald Trump as a Yuppie symbol
Donald Trump as a Yuppie in the 1980s was widely seen as a symbol for his success in the 2016 presidential election -
Yuppies in the Tech World
Nowadays, people would continue to use Yuppie to describe the elite in the commercial and technology sector. With the advancement of chips, investors are increasingly viewing all money go to the technology area not limited to computers but biomedical science. Social media giant like Mark Zuckerberg is another kind of yuppie. Those yuppies are no longer being focused on their look but their vision about the future.