Comment
Friendship bracelets and saccharine lyrics: fans at a Taylor Swift concert in 2023. Allen Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty
Cheer up, millennials, life’s not so bad
Adults are regressing, says Kat Rosenfield in The Free Press. For the first time, adult-only households in America spend more on toys than households with children. Orlando theme parks are “overrun” by “childless Disney adults”. Plenty of mid-lifers still sleep with their teddies, 40-something dads scurry away to their “man caves” to play video games, and countless women stack their arms with friendship bracelets to watch 36-year-old Taylor Swift sing saccharine lyrics about her crushes. Much of this “arrested development” among millennials (those born between 1980 and 1995) presumably stems from growing up into a financially precarious era, which has made normal adult milestones – home ownership, family formation – seem impossible to achieve. No wonder they favour the “fantasy of being forever young”.
Young adults today certainly love a moan, says Dan Kadlec in The New York Times. But hasn’t every generation faced what seemed like an “unprecedented crisis” in its twenties and thirties? We baby boomers certainly thought so. We came of age with Vietnam, the oil wars and stagflation. The homicide rate in 1980 was more than twice what it is today. And hanging over us all was the distinctly unnerving possibility of nuclear Armageddon. “Is life so much worse now?” Millennials will figure it out. Not because the challenges they face aren’t real, but because “that’s what generations do”. And then, like every cohort before them, they’ll tell their children how lucky they have it. I can hear it now: “You have no idea what life was like before AI. We had to Google things ourselves.”
💰📈 This isn’t just anecdotal, says The Economist. In 29 of 32 rich countries we studied, millennials earn more, adjusted for inflation, than previous generations did at the same age. (The exceptions are Italy, Greece and Japan.) In America, property ownership rates among the oldest millennials match Gen X – born 1965 to 1979 – exactly. And the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the median inheritance for people born in England in the 1980s will be around £136,000, more than double the £66,000 those born in the 1960s can expect. “Don’t pity millennials. It is their economy now.”
Advertisement
Join The Knowledge’s Editor-in-Chief Jon Connell in conversation with National Geographic Explorer and Expedition Expert George Kourounis and Emily Mikus, Global Director of Partnerships with G Adventures.
Discover a new way to explore the world with National Geographic Signature with G Adventures – a collection of extraordinary small-group expeditions where unparalleled National Geographic expertise and storytelling, rare access and five-star hospitality converge.
George Kourounis will also share stories from a life spent exploring some of the planet’s most extraordinary places – and offer a glimpse into The Five Stans & the Heart of the Silk Road, the Signature expedition he will personally lead.
Property
THE WATERSIDE FLAT This two-bedroom apartment overlooks the River Lea in east London, says The Guardian. Spread across 683 sq ft are two double bedrooms, a bathroom and a light-filled, open-plan living-kitchen-dining room which opens on to a balcony. The flat comes with 24-hour concierge service, and up to £20,000 towards stamp duty or deposit contribution is available for eligible first-time buyers. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre are nearby, and Bromley-by-Bow Underground station is a two-minute walk. £499,900. Click here to see the listing.
Heroes and villains
Jennifer Meyer with Ogunlesi, and Tobey Maguire. Getty
Hero
Hollywood actor Tobey Maguire, for officiating at his ex-wife’s wedding to her new husband just one month after they divorced. The Spider-Man star, 51, separated from Jennifer Meyer in 2016 but they are on such good terms that he presided over her nuptials to billionaire music executive Geoffrey Ogunlesi in Hawaii last week. The pictures suggest he couldn’t be happier for the couple, says Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail. “Either that, or he knows something Mr Ogunlesi doesn’t.”
Villain
Darts champion Luke Littler, who has been mocked online for parking his £39,000 BMW terribly – or, as one commenter put it, “like a t***” – at a Wigan leisure centre. Surprise surprise, says Carol Midgley in The Times. BMW drivers are known for being rude and entitled, hence all the jokes about why they’re different to porcupines (because porcupines have their pricks on the outside) or about what to do if you see one using the indicators correctly (call the police, it’s obviously stolen). Littler was “behaving exactly as a BMW owner should”.
Hero
DonnaJean Wilde, a 61-year-old grandmother of 12, who has broken her own Guinness World Record for a woman holding the plank position. The retired Canadian schoolteacher held the ab-crunching pose for five hours at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah last week, surpassing her previous best of 4 hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds. She now wants to beat her other world record, for the most press ups done in an hour by a woman: 1,575, roughly one every two seconds.
Heroes
AI researchers who have apparently taken up smoking to signal their belief that the technology will eventually cure cancer. Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Peter Thiel-backed data company Palantir, says the logic of these performative puffers is: “I’m going to show you my chips are all in.” It’s a bold stance, says Rusty Foster on Substack. They’re presumably banking on AI also figuring out “how to cure chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, macular degeneration, diabetes and a range of cardiovascular diseases”.
Hero
London’s new “super sewer”, which appears to be doing a sterling job of cleaning up the River Thames. In its first year of operation, the 16-mile Thames Tideway Tunnel reduced the amount of raw sewage entering the river by 86%, and prevented about 84 tonnes of wet wipes and other litter from reaching the waterway. Thames Water says the stretch of river running through the capital, once declared “biologically dead”, is now “on the road to recovery”.
Inside politics
Stephen Watson: a “no-nonsense” copper. Aaron Chown/Getty
Andy Burnham’s “blind spot” on crime
Three years after Andy Burnham became the mayor of Greater Manchester, says Rachel Sylvester in The Observer, the local police force was put into special measures. Burnham replaced the chief constable with Stephen Watson, a “no-nonsense” copper who declared on his first day that even his labrador could detect more burglaries than Greater Manchester Police. Watson believes in the “broken-windows” theory of policing: that if you don’t clear up low-level offences such as graffiti or smashed windows, it’ll lead to more disorder. He insisted that every reported crime be investigated, and that officers polish their shoes and keep their uniforms “immaculate”. This “back-to-basics” approach worked. Within three years, the number of crimes solved had doubled and the burglary detection rate had risen sevenfold. In July, the force received the top rating in the government’s new ranking system, completing “the fastest turnaround in policing history”.
Burnham definitely deserves some credit for this success story. But it also highlights one of the prime minister’s weaknesses: his “blind spot” about the criminal justice system. Because of Watson’s success, he never really had to think about crime – and now he’s in No 10 that’s starting to show. He immediately caved to a tabloid backlash over the early release scheme for prisoners, carving out exceptions that will mean jails will soon be full again. This week he scrapped plans to replace jury trials with a lone judge, which will make it even harder to tackle the backlog of 80,000 cases. In other policy areas – social care, education, welfare – Burnham understands the knock-on effect of reform, or lack of it. With the justice system he “seems unable to connect the dots”. This could end up costing him. As one minister puts it: “Criminal justice doesn’t win elections but it can certainly lose them.”
The Knowledge Crossword
Life
Sam Mellish/In Pictures/Getty
Romance and intrigue in London’s oldest restaurant
Behind the Dickensian frontage of London’s oldest restaurant, “romance and intrigue” have long been as much a part of the menu as the porter, pies and oysters, says Richard Kay in the Daily Mail. It was at Rules in Covent Garden that King Edward VII, “whose gluttony was matched only by his hunger for seducing other men’s wives”, entertained his mistress Lillie Langtry. A curtain was installed and a private entrance cut into the panelled wall to ensure their privacy, and the signed portrait Langtry gave the owner as a thank you still hangs in place today. Graham Greene began his scandalous affair with Lady Catherine Walston, his goddaughter, with a kiss on the pavement outside the restaurant after a dinner of steak and onions.
Rules, which was donated to the National Trust this week, has remained stubbornly unchanged since it was founded in 1798. Dining trends such as fusion foods have been “loftily ignored” and credit cards weren’t accepted when they first came in. Diners over the years have included great writers (Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman), golden age movie stars (Charlie Chaplin, Bing Crosby, John Wayne) and royals. In 1985, the then Prince Charles held a “highly confidential” lunch with journalists where he railed against complaints on a US trip that he was a dull dresser compared to Diana. “What did they expect me to do,” he bristled, “wear a gold lamé jockstrap?” It was a favourite among politicians too. A portrait of regular diner Margaret Thatcher long held pride of place, but that never put off those from the left. John Prescott adored it and Bob Crow, the rail union leader, went so often he barely bothered with the menu before ordering his preferred dish: the crab salad or the halibut.
Weather
Quoted
“What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise”
Jerome K Jerome
That’s it. You’re done.
Let us know what you thought of today’s issue by replying to this email
To find out about advertising and partnerships, click here
Been forwarded this newsletter? Try it for free
Enjoying The Knowledge? Click to share
