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According to widespread press reports, the Young Urban Professionals—members of the baby boom generation with college educations and high-paying jobs—are becoming a dominant political and cultural force in American society. While accounts of their attitudes are impressionistic, most suggest that they adopt liberal positions on issues of personal freedom but reject the socioeconomic liberalism of the New Deal and the 1960s. Analysis of the General Social Surveys from 1982 to 1984, however, shows that while the presumptive yuppies are more liberal than the general population on issues of personal freedom, they are not particularly conservative on social welfare issues. The differences are explained by their youth and higher education rather than by any distinct yuppie attitude syndrome. Some possible causes of the mass media's infatuation with a perhaps mythical yuppie are discussed. |
