https://medium.com/@DMattin/work-hard-get-paid-buy-stuff-feel-good-repeat-6a278dda2756
The end of consumerism is not just due to economic downturn. Millennials and GenZ are different than the generations of the 20th Century. They are turning away from consumerism due to a different set of values and interests. They value experiences rather than accumulation of things. I would add that the difference is not necessarily an improvement in moral values but more a shift because of the available experiences provided by technology. Full disclosure: I AM A BOOMER.
Now that we got that out of the way, I admire the Millennials and GenZ. My generation and GenX take great pleasure in ripping the younger generations. I go out of my way to defend them for the obvious reason that the attacks are ridiculous. My parents generation (the Silent Generation) was constantly on the attack against boomers. We were called Hippies, lazy, unpatriotic, disloyal, cowards, unwilling to commit to anything, etc. Sound familiar. Yea, that is the same nonsense being said about Millennials.
So, I am that good looking guy on the far right. That was 1975 when I was attending the University of Texas. That young trouble maker wound up in the District Attorney's Office of Harris County (Houston Texas area) prosecuting murderers who threatened to kill me and wipe out my family. The point being, you cannot vilify an entire generation with these vague, ill defined complaints of character.
What we do know is when a robotic car can be summoned with a cell phone, for only a few dollars, there is no longer a need to buy a car. When amazing lofts are built in rehabbed factories in the downtown area, we no longer will buy homes in the suburbs. The changes we are witnessing have been going on since we crawled out of the caves. Everybody needs to relax and enjoy the new opportunities. The attached article does a far better job than I can to describe the current phenomena. Oh, Yea, and did I mention Millennials rock?