Bobos

Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class And How They Got There[1] is a book by David Brooks, first published in 2000. The word bobo, Brooks's most famous coinage, is a portmanteau of the wordsbourgeois and bohemian. The term is used by Brooks to describe the 1990s descendants of the yuppies. Often of the corporate upper class, they claim highly tolerant views of others, purchase expensive andexotic items, and believe American society to be meritocratic.
Brooks's thesis in Bobos in Paradise is that this "new upper class" represents a marriage between the liberal idealism of the 1960s and theself-interest of the 1980s. Critics[who?] of Brooks's thesis argue that he does not provide an argument as to how this elite is new, and that the bobo trend merely represents changing tastes andpreferences of a preexisting upper class (not a product of social mobility).
Bobos are noted for their aversion to conspicuous consumption while emphasizing the "necessities" of life. Brooks argues thatthey feel guilty in the way typical of the so-called "greed era" of the 1980s so they prefer to spend extravagantly on kitchens, showers, and other common facilities of everyday life. They "feel" forthe labor and working class and often purchase American-made goods rather than less expensive imports. The term "bobo chic" was applied to a style of fashion, similar to "boho chic", that becamepopular in uptown New York in 2004-5.[citation needed]
Bobos often relate to money as a means rather than an end; they do not disdain money but use it to achieve their ends rather than considering wealthas an achievable end in itself.
The New York Times has written about the changing tastes of bobos: "'Made in the U.S.A.' used to be a label flaunted primarily by consumers in the Rust Belt and ruralregions. Increasingly, it is a status symbol for cosmopolitan bobos, and it is being exploited by the marketers who cater to them."[2]
In colloquial use bobo is often utilized in place of the word...