The More Things Change
I really, really wish I could buy this New York Times article about how the Facebook generation is turning out to be more open about their personal finances than their predecessors, as I am one of those folks who believes that the American tradition of silence about our incomes and personal finances is one of the main contributors to our bogus belief that we are a classless society.
Unfortunately, however, I think any talk of greater financial frankness about the young ‘uns falls into the bogus trend story category of journalism. See, I too recall a great openness about money matters when I was in my twenties. It all seemed to end when my friends and I all reached our early thirties, and the cost of different financial decisions or fiscal luck began to manifest as we began to buy houses, have children and the like. I suspect the same will be true of Generation Y, Facebook or no. There are some things that don’t change.
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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