Meritocracy is just a belief and we buy it no more.
Okay boomer! When is the last time your bonus has been strictly related to real performance? Last time that you could measure the results of your work? Above all, are you happy?
“Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end”, Bob Marley said.
In our economic system, you will find short-term worries about not enough people buying enough stuff — but that worry has always existed. In a society that bases its measures of success in terms of home prices, market values, and GDP, there will always be a need to prompt citizens to buy more and more.
Where is this coming from?
In the essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren (1931), John Maynard Keynes envisioned that, by adopting his model, humanity would have economic freedom by the year 2030.
This would bring a high standard of living, 15 working hours per week, and the freedom from any pulse to consume for the sake of consumption.
We were all sold to that, and to make it happen, we have adopted an economy based on continuous financial growth. We have created mechanisms to increase consumption and paid no attention to ecological, economic, and social stability, as they would have come by design.
For decades, marketers have used generational studies to investigate the needs of millions of people by correlating consumption data to birthdate, one of the few individual information available.
Based on that, entire industries have directed their business strategy targeting consumers, customers, or patients by interpolating data, considerations and, behavioral prediction around age.
Lifestyle, financial goals, payment channels, the propensity to debt, in this model, are all functions of the age or finalized to find new ways to consume more.
Generational studies are still on, and reassurance messages from marketers will tell you that nothing has changed and everything is under control. The reality is that affecting factors change with unparalleled speed, collapsing industry barriers, impairing the underneath definition of consumers, customers, or patients.
In our interconnected world, age is just one of the dimensions that can help decode socioeconomic differences.
Where are we?
With one decade to go to 2030, we seem to diverge from Keynes’ vision.
The more we look at collective behaviors under the light of data, the more we find shreds of evidence that:
- Unconditional consumption of resources has had a dramatic impact on Earth,
- Technologic advances are not freeing up our time but reducing our wages,
- We are less happy than our grandparents, and
- We have no clue how to stop this wheel.
So do people like to spend no more?
This is a typical XX century question: people are no longer wired in that way as they have realized that no “end” means no happiness. You earn to buy goods that pollute your life, and as a result, they become debts. Minimalists say.
Boomers (born between 1947 and 1967) grew up in a booming Brick and Mortar world. The bigger, the better was the motto; the rewarding feeling was around owning a product (a degree, a car, a family, a house, a dog, a swimming pool, in this order).
Time has passed, and they do not see themselves as their parents at their age (silent generation). They are incapable of letting go. Afraid of the speed of the change, they will hang around, waiting for the next bet.
Digital Pioneers and digital Natives (all the rest, mainly) see it differently: their world is a flow and the most visible, the coolest. Success, career, they know it will not last, so they do not want to be the one. Following the trajectory of their hero gives them satisfaction: every like is a stone thrown toward a bin.
They are not cynical. It is not a love of frugality.
It is a healthy disappointment since all efforts do not seem to serve the purpose.
Digital generations have learned in their childhood that a Master of Science does not grant a job, but most likely, it will put you in a cage. A house is not an asset but a ball and chain (you do not know where you will be in 5 years). Family? It does not last. Cars? Only worth it if you can pay for the gas and you own a parking place (better an e-bike or a scooter).
Now, if you are wired like a marketer, you might argue that the basket of goods and services has changed: they are now after smartphones.
My answer? Have a look around and see how many of them have broken a glass. Smartphones are tools good to connect with friends (forget about the pump of influencers, digital natives hate Facebook).
They do not see themselves as their parents at their age. They know they have not had the same opportunities. Not betting too much on the future, they will hang around grabbing what they can, holding their cards for an all-in.
So what?
Generational, geographical, and cultural differences are melting down.
When basis definitions change, nothing remains the same: people are after the right now and right here more than in the past. There are no buyers for the meritocratic illusion.
Who believes in a quarter by quarter growth has heart and head in the past century, no matter if a boomer or a digital native.
Businesses in every sector should converge their attention around what motivates people, balancing the assurance of the status quo with the need for change.
Attracting people’s attention will help passing the message, whether it is for business, self-promotion, or fun:
- Choose a vision: Work on motivations, do not lie, give yourself a clear objective beyond the money and the financial results. Engaging on income and benefit will create mixed feelings, with fluctuation that you might not be able to afford. Give people a goal, and stick to it.
- Feed curiosity: Make learning a game. Superimposing an experience is always costly and it is easier to digest if coupled with small challenges and achievements. People (of all ages) love games.
- Make it incremental: Forget long patterns to the promised land or a clear map to get there. We have a GPS now, and it is of no help if it gets you stuck in the traffic. Small, incremental wins make the game pleasant and let the freedom to build your own vision.
Thanks for reading. Tweet me @flavalib and let me know you read this!
If you liked this article you might want to have a look at my other articles on Innovation
Three forces that shape innovation beyond conflict and change
The three essential traits of successful innovators
Innovation in Nature: a life history strategy approach to change your business
