"Economists call it doom spending: a nihilistic spin on retail therapy."

Courtney Shea for Maclean's: https://macleans.ca/longforms/the-doom-spenders/

#Longreads #Canada #GenerationZ #Consumerism #Spending #Money #Finance #Doomspending #Unemployment #Debt

'It’s not logical—it’s dissociative. “A classic trauma response,” according to financial therapist Aseel El-Baba, who told me that Gen Z has a severed relationship with the future. “We’re asking them to make decisions that will benefit them down the road, and they’re saying, ‘What road? The road that’s been pulled out from under us?’”'

https://macleans.ca/longforms/the-doom-spenders/

#doomspending
#economy
#nihilism
#young
#yolo
#fomo

#DoomSpending

"Why do our growing environmental and political crises, bearing existential risk for human beings, trigger irrational spending and consumption? I call it asteroid economics. We consume with abandon because we sense destruction. Why save for a future when we might not exist? Why conserve if the planet is dying? Whether it’s climate collapse, nuclear war or cyber-triggered Armageddon, the figurative asteroid is coming, so we might as well spend now.

So-called doom spending – a phenomenon where people spend money to cope with stress – presents an unsettling paradox: reports meant to inspire caution instead trigger abandon, self-indulgence. People aren’t ignoring the dangers of climate change, nuclear weapons or artificial intelligence threats; they’re shopping their way through them.

Throughout history, societies facing existential threats have not responded with conservation but with spectacular abandon. During the French financial crisis of the 1780s, aristocrats facing fiscal collapse reflexively intensified luxury consumption rather than investing in reform or refortification of the military. As thousands of workers protested outside the Palace of Versailles in 1786, courtiers reportedly enjoyed opulent balls. During the Black Death, survivors spent wildly rather than saving. Italian people ‘gave themselves up to the enjoyment of worldly riches’ with banquets and unbridled luxury, while England’s King Edward III held tournaments where all were encouraged to maintain festive spirits, believing parsimony was pointless when death resided in every street.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides the clearest modern-day example of this response to existential threat. As economies collapsed, luxury car purchases surged inexplicably. Some Mercedes industry dealers reported being ‘genuinely surprised’ by unexpected demand surges in mid-2020, and the sales of ultra-luxury brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce were growing during the crisis. In 2024, the World Economic Forum (WEF) issued a report on escalating environmental, political and technological challenges that threaten civilisation itself. The WEF report didn’t emerge in isolation. The United Nations issued an inaugural risk report, while polling showed people worldwide were increasingly worried about existential threats.

The convergence seems almost synchronistic, several institutions worldwide independently acknowledging the precarious state we’ve created for ourselves. Within a year of these reports, auto sales surged to record levels, with March 2025 marking the sixth-best March in 50 years as companies and households rushed to buy goods before expected tariffs took effect. Instead of prompting conservation or preparation, the warnings seem to trigger doom spending. It seems that people weren’t just buying these items despite the crisis, but because of it."

https://psyche.co/ideas/asteroid-economics-why-were-shopping-our-way-through-armageddon

Americans are #DoomSpending | CNN Business

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/10/business/doom-spending-wellness/index.html