Tea at Trianon: Millennials and Travel

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 27, 2017

Millennials and Travel

From Forbes:

In fact, instead of offering clarity or perspective, travel was just a distraction from the more pressing, albeit less fun, necessities of living a well-rounded life such as learning a trade, gaining key life skills, and developing an acceptance of delayed gratification. In other words, “adulting” became an unfamiliar territory.

I suggest millennials not feed into the existing stereotype of our generation and avoid being a living example of the Stanford marshmallow experiment. Instead, millennials should build their nest before they fly because otherwise, they are merely seeking reward without having put in the work thus returning home to an unstable foundation.

Earning an income while reaping the benefits of exotic locales appears to be the best of both worlds, but as a result, millennials are building less equity in not only financial investment but also social capital. While millennials save 36% more of their annual income than their generational counterparts, 63% admit they utilize their savings for travel, dining, and fitness rather than retirement or planning for the future as noted in Merrill Edge’s 2017 report.

In addition, millennials are not putting down roots but preferring a no-strings-attached, nomadic lifestyle, which can impede networking abilities and the curation of future job prospects. (Read more.)