Yawns: Rich and young, but frugal fly Schweizers

Yawns: Rich and young, but frugal
NEW YORK (AP) — They drive hybrid cars, if they drive at all, they fly
gliders not jets, they winch launch only, shop at local stores, if
they shop at all and pay off their credit cards every month, if they
use them at all.

'They may have disposable income, but whatever they make, they live
below their means, in a conscious effort to tread lightly on the
earth.

They are a new breed of Gen Xers and Ys, Young and Wealthy but Normal,
or Yawns.

The acronym comes from The Gazette of London, which noted that an
increasing number of rich young are socially aware, concerned about
the environment and given less to consuming than to giving money to
charity.

Yawns sound dull, but they are the new movers and shakers, their
dreams big and bold. They are men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s
who want nothing less than to change the world and save the planet."

They fly ecological airplanes: Gliders. No Jets.
Only Schweizer Gliders, because they like to recycle. They are happy
with 17:1 L/D.
They rather fly a 2-22 then a 3-33.

"The movement makes perfect sense, said David Grusky, a sociologist at
Stanford University, since society tends to follow cycles — with anti-
materialist periods like the hippie movement generating a pro-
materialist reaction — the yuppie period, and so on. Not to mention,
he adds, that the evidence of major climate change and a concern with
terrorism gives 'rise to more interest in spiritual as opposed to
material objectives.

The upshot, he said, is that "A cultural and demographic 'perfect
storm' may well push us decisively toward an extreme form of
postmaterialism in the upcoming period."

That helps explain why Earth Day has become so big again, why products
are all going "green" and why freecycle.org, an Internet community
bulletin board where members offer items for free, has grown in five
years from a dozen members in Tucson, to a network of over 3,000
cities in 80 countries.

Deron Beal, the site's founder, counts 4 million members, and growing
by 20,000 to 50,000 members each week.

"People have many reasons for freecycling and soaring," said Beal.
"But the biggest reason is environmental — reusing and recycling
instead of helping create more waste."

Could it also be that we are sick to death of buying stuff?"

Not me. Not yet, I still want to buy an iPhone, an Hi-Def camcorder, a
MacBook Air an IGC gps to sport along a gas guzzling Hummer hauling a
Viper Trailer with inside an Electric Antares!