The 'Yuppie' Era Is Long Gone — Or Is It?

The extreme preppy look, the Jane Fonda workout, the relentless drive for success — these were just some of the hallmarks of the Yuppie era, when the much-maligned subset of the Baby Boom generation emerged as a cultural force.

Whether you identified as a Yuppie, aspired to be one or completely rejected the label, there's no denying the group's impact — then and now.

In Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation, journalist Tom McGrath traces the arc of this demographic from '60s idealists to '80s uber-capitalists. Through interviews and extensive research, he captures key moments from this period and the larger-than-life characters who helped shape them, including former Yippie-turned-Yuppie Jerry Rubin, GE chairman and CEO and big business champion Jack Welch and Democratic presidential wannabe Gary Hart.

McGrath, who is also the author of "MTV: The Making of the Revolution," spoke with Next Avenue about the rise and backlash against Yuppies, how their legacy can still be felt and why he thinks they helped fuel the income inequality roiling our politics today.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Next Avenue: You came of came of age in the early '80s so you were too young to be a Yuppie. How did the Yuppie label strike you at the time?

Tom McGrath: I graduated from college in 1986 — I was an undergrad for the peak of the Yuppie phenomenon. I didn't make enough money both as a college student or a budding journalist to be a Yuppie, but I couldn't help but be influenced by it.

I remember dressing in my preppy blue blazer and yellow power tie. I had friends who wanted to go to New York and work in the world of finance. I could feel the cultural pull — making money was the most important thing, and the sense of renewed patriotism with the 1984 Summer Olympics.

What made you want to write this book about Yuppies now?

There definitely is a connection to today. This is a story that's worth telling — it's good as a story, and I also think it's an important thing to understand: How did we get here, not only with Yuppies' lifestyle influences but also the income inequality and the divides along economic and educational lines?

The impact of the Yuppies goes well beyond suspenders, health foods and junk bonds. There were also seismic policy and regulatory shifts in the '80s. What were some of the biggest changes?

I think there was a real focus in America starting in the late '70s and '80s on 'success' and 'achievement' mostly in a financial and career way. It's really the reaction to a lot of struggles the economy had — the stagflation with high unemployment and high inflation, coupled with Baby Boomers entering the job market in a big way and the sense that success is a zero-sum game: 'I have to make my success happen on my own.'

At the same time, you have changes on Wall Street — the '70s were a tough decade. There was a sense that we needed to get the market going. In corporate America, there was also a shift. I write about Jack Welch and GE, but that was just one corporation that decided to prioritize the needs of shareholders over employees and communities.

Politics is also a part of this — the move rightwards with Reagan and the rise of Reaganomics and conservatism.

Another change was that Baby Boomers were a better educated generation than previous generations.

As part of the post-war boom and economic boom, there was also a boom in expectations — 'my kids are going to college even if I didn't.' There were record numbers of Baby Boomers going to college — for the first time, close to 50% of a generation enters college. They are going to get a degree and enter the white-collar world. This version of economic advance and climbing the ladder contributes to this sense of success and achievement.

In the book, you portray Jerry Rubin, former Yippie and '60s activist-turned-ardent-capitalist, as a poster child for Baby Boomers not exactly gone wrong but certainly gone far from their youthful idealism.

I remembered the 180 degree turn he had done in his life. When I started to do deeper research, I wanted to understand Rubin's transformation. His story is emblematic of a shift within a generation — their ideals used to be here and 15 years later, they moved over here.

The word 'yuppie' changes from a descriptor into ultimately a kind of pejorative, but he embraced it and fashioned himself as a spokesperson for the Yuppies.

In the current political era, what might have been distaste for Yuppies is now a distaste for so-called elites. You trace this throughline from '80s Rust Belt communities like Youngstown, Ohio to the MAGA movement.

I do think there's a connection; in part it's an economic resentment or economic grievance. People believe they lost their livelihoods at the expense of this more elite group that shipped jobs overseas or automated them or simply downsized them. It's partly economic but also partly cultural — that sense that well-educated people who live in or near cities tend to have a certain arrogance of how life should be lived. It doesn't always play well in places that are different from them.

The term Yuppie lost favor by the end of the '80s, yet here we are 40-plus years later sipping our lattes, doing yoga and taking photos of our food on Instagram. Have gentrification and the concerns over its impact just taken the place of the Yuppies?

I was struck when doing research about the stock market crash of 1987 that you go from rebellion against Yuppies to people saying, 'Finally, this phenomenon is over, and Yuppies are dead.' The truth is the word goes away, but [the idea of being a Yuppie] didn't really go away at all, although maybe some of the most overt in your face excessiveness isn't there.

Even more broadly, defining success in only economic terms continues in the culture. The economic divide we have in the country speaks to what was started the 1980s.