Our reputation quickly found a nifty shorthand: Millennials were a generation of minimalists. The minimalist-millennial myth began in the early 2010s in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Though it was largely an aesthetic trend, the myth of millennial minimalism was so central to my cohort's cultural identity that it may as well have been real. Even now, demand for cars is looked at as a bellwether for consumer spending and the US economy more broadly. Proving the point, young adults were back to buying cars by the mid-2010s.

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Persons: we've, X, Millennials haven't, Peter, millennials, —, Marie Kondo's, Kyle Chayka, Chayka, it's, Sam's, Lizabeth Cohen, didn't, Gen, minimalists, Gen Zers, Gen Xers, We'd, Freddie Mac, Bryan Rigg Organizations: Consumer, Nielsen, Automobile, Harvard, Federal Reserve, millennials, of Labor Statistics, National Association of Realtors, Consumer Expenditure Locations: Toronto, New York City, Brooklyn