Generation Y – The ultimate capitalists

I belong to the age bracket profoundly referred to as Generation Y, and so do most of my friends, workmates and business associates. Most of my friends and colleagues were born in the mid-1970's up to the late 1990's. I am closer to those born in the early 1980s up to the late 1980s. These we are bonded by age. Most of them have either climbed near the top of various corporate ladders (middle management or junior management positions) or running promising businesses. A few of them are in senior management at the top of the corporate ladder or running successful business entities.

Despite our dynamism and huge age gaps, we have all been classified by marketing experts as belonging to Generation Y. The emergence of Generation Y – defined as those born in early 1980's up to the early 2000's – presents marketers with many challenges. This market segment, also frequently called Millennials, spans a broad range of life-stages, from those just getting into secondary school to those with spouses, children and home loans. We are not, therefore, a homogeneous whole – but have been shaped by the same socio–economic trends. We share similar traits, habits and values – all of which marketers need to grasp fully in their branding strategy.

Generation Y is particularly important to marketers because it is arguably the generation which has been responsible for today’s excessive consumerism. Every marketer knows too well that the biggest problem encountered in satisfying Generation Y consumers is that they have frequently changing tastes. For this generation everything simply comes and quickly goes out of fashion. One thing though that is in comportment at all levels of Generation Y consumers is their need for self-importance and a high degree of grandiosity.

Generation Y likes to own everything that is nice. The biggest job. The biggest car. The biggest house. The biggest of everything. BIG is what defines us. In addition to BIG, there is another word and it is called BLING. Bling is the slang word for ‘shiny’. So, we love shiny big things and nothing else ever matters. Perhaps put in a different way, I may say we are a proud and selfish generation. We may not be at the level of selfishness and self-centeredness that Dr Chika Onyeani in ‘capitalist nigger’ describes as, "killer-instinct" and "devil-may-care" arrogance of Caucasians, but we definitely have a level of brashness that generations before us lacked.

The most important things to us are our own needs and nothing more. Perhaps we have become so exposed, so educated and so prosperous nothing else matters. Not religion, not any creeds and doctrines. Fulfillment of self is our number one and the only motivation for our everyday life.

Globalization and technology has enabled us to explore and experience the length and breadth of the world even without physically being present in certain areas. The internet has enabled us to look at the world as one big global village. For this and other reasons, we look at the world with a high level of open mindedness. In being open minded, we have embraced capitalism more and now we are viewed as being self-centered.

It may be arguable which social system is the best, but free enterprise (capitalism) always has an edge over socialism and communism. Socialism and communism moralize that individuals should not have ownership of land, capital (money), or industry, but rather the whole community collectively owns and controls property, goods, and production.  Ideally, in this system all share equally in work and the fruits of their labor.

Under Capitalism, individuals own and control land, capital, and production of industry.  Individuals are free to purchase and own their own homes, cars, furniture, and other goods such as TV, radio, computer, etc. Individuals have total freedom to live where they want and what type of careers they want to pursue.

The biggest problem with socialism and communism lies in human attitudes. If you don't own something, you are not obliged to take good care of it. For instance, in Zambia, institutional and council houses that had been dilapidated as a result of tenants not taking good care of them and consequently lost value suddenly turned into well maintained mansions after massive renovations and extensions to the properties once they were privately owned and thus experienced a rise in value.  The ‘va boma’ attitude suddenly died as owners now had a vested interest in keeping the houses in good condition.

Critics have charged that capitalist social systems insist too much on material possessions, and a love affair with ‘worldly’ possessions which is not sustainable. Capitalism does not tell men to suffer, but to pursue enjoyment and achievement. Capitalism tells people to produce and profit—capitalism does not preach passivity, humility, resignation, but independence, self-confidence and self-reliance.

My view… my thoughts…

Since knowledge, thought, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational aptitude or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free to do so and that their thoughts should create as much as can be largely possible. Free thought is what creates innovation which in turn conceives entrepreneurs who build businesses which in turn generate jobs.

Jobs bring about the working class who largely form the middle class, and it is the middle class who are responsible for massive consumerism thus creating a market for more goods from more corporations. This is the supremacy of capitalism. Enabling one man and giving him the freedom to invent, giving him/her the power to create wealth not only for him/herself, but an entire nation.

The unrestricted accumulation of legal capital drives economic activity - the need to continuously produce profits and reinvest this profit into the economy is what develops countries. Generation Y must not be apologetic for seeking profit, useful goods and services are a byproduct of pursuing profit.

Generation Y has been criticized by many as being extremely self-centered and lacking humility. This is perhaps what a country like Zambia needs - A cadre of citizens not afraid to go to great heights in pursuit of profit. The mechanics of a free market economy will self-regulate to dictate and promote good industry practice and cripple those that do not respect the best business practice.

Generation Y is constantly upgrading academic and professional qualification in search of excellence which in turn translate into better jobs. Generation Y is not afraid to hop from one job to the next in search of a better pay or just to be separated from a vexatious boss. This is not a sign of a lack of loyalty, but a sign of a people driven by attainment of the highest standards. In reality generation Y abhors the idea of having a boss. Generation Y prefers to be employees for a substantial period of time and there after turn to entrepreneurs who start business and eventually manage them.

Again Generation Y must not be apologetic or be seen by employers as lacking loyalty. However, employers must rejoice that they are probably hiring the best out of the available pool and if that best is not good enough it won’t be long before another more capable individual comes knocking on that door and the employer only stands to gain in this case.

Generation Y believes that Capitalism demands the best of every man—his rationality—and rewards him accordingly. The best of every man only manifests when he/she realizes that each one of us must contribute to the world’s production and there is no better way of being productive but by being innovative.

For all the pursuit of profit, we must however never lose our humanity. We should never take the route of extreme pursuit of profit as every game has rules thus the pursuit of profit must be done and attained within the legal limits. Lyndon B. Johnson would have better said this as; “I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us -- dollars and all.”

There is no social order that is perfect. In fact good socialism can be better than bad capitalism where only the rich get richer and the extreme social classes are maintained by the same people without ever having others cross to the other side or the middle. Socialism that permits more free market signals and personal freedoms can be superior to a Capitalism that permits pursuit of profit by an elite manipulating public policy. Bad capitalism is equally as debauched as bad socialism or communism.