Throughout the history of America, Americans were living in a capitalist society and consumerism played a significant role and brought catastrophic effects to the American culture. Consumerism was supported by manufacturers to encourage people to buy more. Americans in the nineteenth century did not just buy for necessity but purchased for the consumption sake. Nevertheless, there is a different definition for consumerism among the millennial generation in which their consumption rate has declined. In the article “The Cheapest Generation,” the author explains that even though the car manufacturers are trying very hard to increase the sales of automobiles to the Millennials, the multitude of factors that conspire Millennials to combine their …show more content…
Due to the storm of economic and demographic factors, the millennial generation can never spend as much as the former generation. With that, they may have lost interest in spending money on cars and houses. Indeed, the economy realities for Millennials are awful. The trend of ownership for luxurious properties like houses and cars is gradually costing more and more for those individuals who work hourly. Most Millennials are college graduates but they are either unemployed or underemployed. Due to these harsh realities, they have to put off their dreams to own a car or house. Meanwhile, car ownership becomes more difficult due to the high cost of gas and maintenance. Thus, cars are more expensive and costly to insure. By earning the minimum wage, one is unlikely to afford a good car. Having an old and crappy car is just going to waste more money and time to maintain. All these costs weigh heavily on the Millennials and discourage them to embrace the car …show more content…
With gas price increases and the advent of smartphones, simultaneously, car-sharing becomes more preferable. The Millennials care more about smartphones than owning a car as they provide the same psychological benefits with less spending. Thus, there is less interest in owning a car. In the article, the author mentioned that sharing has gone from hippie to mainstream due to a better inventory management and social media that provides a consistent demand and supply market. Sharing of goods has been integrated into the norm of society. The advancement of technology offers a framework for the market to figure out a way to alleviate the risk from sharing their properties for Millennials. The convenience and reliability of technology has altered the perspective and relationship to assets. Zipcar acts as a good example for this. Zipcar allows the Millennials to have immediate access to a selection of cars that are available with their app on a smartphone. Thus, it gives access to drivers to the cars they do not own. Although smartphones do not bring the same satisfaction as driving a car, it has replaced the status of cars in American culture by appearing similar to the benefits a car offers. With the mobility offered by smartphones, cars are not the only product that can fulfill the need for mobility anymore. All in all, shared goods become