The Yuppie

a ​young ​person who ​lives in a ​city, ​earns a lot of ​money, and ​spends it doing ​fashionable things and ​buying ​expensive possessions' (Cambridge Dictionary)

The Yuppie, was an acronym developed in the the 1980's, to describe the growing (middle) class of highly educated, individuals who maintained patterns/trends within dress, social activities, politics and other areas; thus they became a socially identifiable collective. The growth and development of various markets, such as finance, business, technology and industry during the 80's, led to the increased need for highly educated or specifically skilled employees. Combined with the economic expansion of the 1980s under Reagan, and the strong emphasis on private enterprise and personal fiscal development that furthered materialistic consumerism. obtaining high salary jobs allowed, many young people (who predominated in major city areas), could full fill the growing social consumerism trends, and thus obtained a higher (financially backed) class level than many people of their age in past generation , and the ideal 'of get rich quick', took strong effect amongst college age groups.

Many developed into the culture of (sub)urban, middle class, with head of family; a couple, children and couple of homes, and sub-sect was identified as  DINKS (double-income, no-kids couples).  Married or not, DINKS worked long hours at professional/managerial jobs, postponed having children for the sake of their careers, and had lots of discretionary income which they used in consuming conspicuously, like good yuppies did

The icon of the 'yuppies' became so entrenched in the 80s and 90s that they became a key group to focus in contemporary literature, media and film, 'American Psycho' (published in 1991, and Film 2000), The Yuppie Handbook (1984), Less Than Zero (1985), Cocktail (1988) , these works, presented the Yuppie in a variety of way, whether endearing or demonizing ; they all aim to highlight the fundamental characteristics of Yuppie culture; excess in every aspect of life, sustainable with large amounts of money.  


After the crash, a popular joke was that the difference between a pigeon and a yuppie stockbroker was that the pigeon could still make a deposit on a new Mercedes

Sources:

Cocktail Trailer (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lkzyGV2XdE

Cambridge Online Dictionary Definition of Yuppie: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/yuppie

The Eighties Club -  9. Yuppie Culture
http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id295.htm