Everything about Bourgeois Bohemian totally explained
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class And How They Got There (ISBN 0-684-85378-7) is a book by
David Brooks, first published in
2000. The word
bobo, Brooks's most famous coinage, is a
portmanteau of the words
bourgeois and
bohemian. The term is used by Brooks to describe the
1990s' descendants of the
yuppies. Often of the corporate
upper class, they rarely oppose mainstream society, claim highly tolerant views of others, buy lots of expensive and exotic items, and believe American society to be
meritocratic.
Bobo is often used in place of the word
yuppie, which has usually negative connotations. In fact, even Brooks uses
yuppie in a negative sense throughout his book.
Brooks's thesis in
Bobos in Paradise was that this "new upper class" represented a marriage between the liberal idealism of the
1960s and the self-interest of the
Reagan era. Critics of Brooks's thesis argue that he didn't provide an argument for why this elite was specifically "new," and that the
bobo trend merely represents changing tastes and preferences of a pre-existing upper class (not a product of
social mobility).
Bobos are noted for avoiding indulging in high acts of
conspicuous consumption in favor of spending the greatest amount possible on the "necessities". Brooks argues that they feel guilty consuming in the way typical of the so-called "greed era" of the 1980s so they prefer to spend extravagantly on kitchens, showers, and other common facilities of everyday life. They "feel" for the labor and
working class but may refuse to buy American made goods. The term "bobo
chic" was applied to a style of fashion, similar to "
boho chic", that became popular in uptown New York in 2004-5.
Bobos often relate to money as
means rather than
end; they don't
disdain money but use it to achieve their ends rather than considering wealth as an achievable end in itself.
The New York Times has written about the changing tastes of bobos: "'Made in the U.S.A.' used to be a label flaunted primarily by consumers in the Rust Belt and rural regions. Increasingly, it's a status symbol for cosmopolitan bobos, and it's being exploited by the marketers who cater to them."
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