Odd Lots - Emily Sundberg on How Nobody Is Coming to Save Gen Z

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

What do young professionals in New York City actually think about money and capitalism? According to our guest Emily Sundberg, creator of the Feed Me newsletter, there is a foreboding sense that nobody is coming to save them. End times are coming. AI will take all the jobs. There's a limited time to "secure the bag." In this live episode, recorded in New York City in June, Emily talks about how this translates into consumption and investing decisions among today's youth, and how they see the world of politics. Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlotsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Podcasts, Radio, News. Hello, Odd Lots, listeners. You are listening to another special episode of the podcast. It was recorded in New York City on July 26th. In this conversation, we talked to Emily Sundberg of the Feed-Me newsletter. We are talking about how Gen Z sees the world,

how they think about capitalism, how they think about money, how they think about investing, how they think about spending it, and how they think about how nobody is coming to save them. That's right. I don't think it's a secret at this point that Gen Z seems to love stock market investing and things like that, trying to make money. So take a listen.

First question, been on my mind the last couple days. You have a very, like, young, plugged in, like, sort of business, capitalism, audience. What percentage of your readers do you think voted for Zoran? A young man, I think he was 19, a Yale student, emailed me this morning and asked if I could put that poll in my newsletter. And I didn't. It felt a little late. But I should have. I'm guessing 65% cautiously. Really? Yeah. Can you maybe describe your sort of average reader just for people who might not be aware? Like, what population are you plugged into here? So I don't know if any of you use substack, but they don't give you these analytics.

So all of my data about my readership has been quite anecdotal from just looking at people's profiles in the comment section and seeing who shows up to my parties. But do any of you read it? I do. Okay. So that's some of my audience. I like to say that my readership is everyone from bartenders to billionaires. But I would say like if you're paying $80 a year for a newsletter, then you're probably making a decent, amount of money, or you're at least interested in making money. And I think it's a mostly New York

audience 30 to 45-ish. But if you come to my parties, you'll see who else there is. But I would say people interested in making money and somewhat interested in New York City business and culture. So the first time, several tries to get you on the podcast, but finally making it happen. And I wanted to talk about like Gen Z and capitalism, because I feel like, like millennials and maybe Gen X, but millennials in particular, like, sort of had this love-hate relationship, like sort of apologized for wanting money, sort of ambivalent about it.

And I get the impression that the younger generation is, like, much more comfortable with like, yeah, we want to make a ton of money. Yeah. And so I'm like curious. Yeah. So talk about if that's correct, this perception. I think one thing that's very clear about Gen Z is that they've repeatedly been told nobody is coming to save you.

You're going to graduate into a job market that barely exists and if you get a job, you might not even have a desk or an office to go into. A lot of them were home during COVID and they're also seeing like shootings in schools all the time

and they're seeing their capital getting sworn. Like nobody is coming to save them and it's sort of up to them to make the most of this world while it's still in existence. and you hear this sense of like get the bag while the world is still here for you to make some money out of it. What was your question?

No, that was basically it. That's like an overwhelming sentiment that I hear from these people, yeah. I think there was like some survey and they asked all the generations like, what do you need to have a good life? And there's something like 70,000, whatever. And then Shenzhi was like $500,000 salary or something like that. Yeah, I mean you're even seeing like if you're a creator even at like Goldman Sachs, you're probably making more money as like making day in the life TikToks than you are from your salary. And like, there's this growing creator economy and your role model might be somebody who's like made

millions and millions of dollars a year from humiliating themselves online. And like there's all these possibilities and tools from entering the creator economy. Like I think Bloomberg published a story last week that even just the market for creator marketing is like $33 billion now. It's massive. This idea that no one's coming to save you. We've talked about this on an episode before, but it does feel like that kind of translates into people making these lottery ticket type bets, right? So I'll buy into crypto or I'll make a ridiculous options trade or something like that and hope that I just get lucky and save myself. Yeah, I think like something with crypto, there's this online sort of sportsmanship

and camaraderie around it as well. So there's like this fun competition and making the money and it's all very public as well to me. Like you're seeing how much your peers are making and winning and you're almost like seeing how much they're taking home each week, which is stressful. How much of the nobody is coming to save you mentality is like AI dread? Like jobs as we know them might not exist. I think a lot of it. Yeah.

Say more. I mean, back to this idea that say you graduate from college last week on a 100 degree day and you don't have a job lined up yet or maybe you do. a job lined up and you're entering a very flat company where there's not like a clear ladder for you to climb. And not only is your timeline there, it probably feels somewhat flat, but the end is like whether you're a copywriter or if you're working in finance, there's like the end of it might be a replacement with mass layoffs and AI coming in to take that job. I'm going to ask a completely self-interested question. But does Gen Z truly hate the millennial generation?

Is that a real thing? I'm not Gen Z. So, like, I'm not, like, the speaker of the generation. I'm, I guess maybe I'm 30, so. Yeah, that's like cuspy, right? Cuspy, yeah, yeah. But I never identified as gen Z. I'm definitely identifying more with millennials.

I don't think they truly hate millennials. I don't think that's the case. I think that there's, like, a lot of parts about, there's, like, this tweeness to millennials that is, like, cringy. But that's fair. I agree. Yeah. I'm really actually, um,

I've actually been thinking about this phenomenon of like really flat companies for a while. So I thought it was like really interesting that you said that because it really feels like, and we actually did an episode recently with the economist Ricardo Hausman where he sort of talked about like companies, their structure is just they have a lot of different people who are like the talent. But it doesn't feel like they're just sort of normal jobs at a lot of companies for people who are just sort of normal to get. Yeah, I worked at Meta for a few years and there were like these Roman numerals. rolls next to your position. And you knew how much everybody at the company was making if they were like a three or a five. And when you moved from a four to a five, it was like $20,000 more

at year. Like, not life-changing. Like, maybe you're taking an extra few Uber's, like a year or something like that. And it felt very flat. Like, and it's also hard to look at somebody who you're working with who's two levels higher than you and necessarily aspire to that. Like, you're not going to stay an extra two hours at night. It's not inspiring. So just going back to Mumdani, so one of the theories about why he's kind of resonating with the younger crowd nowadays is this idea that, okay, they don't really have a stake in capitalism necessarily. Like they don't feel like they're being rewarded by the capitalist system. And so they're voting for change. Is that something you kind of observe in your day-to-day interactions? Well, I work alone, so I'm not like observing many interactions from people.

But, like, online, I think the people who gravitated towards him the strongest felt more of religious, like hope. Like, it was like this idea of hope and something different. And it was like a salve after such a rough beginning of the year with, like, Trump coming into the White House. But, yeah, I don't, I think it was, it felt more emotional and almost religious to me than, like, at least from, like, what I've been observing and, and why people attach themselves to that message so strongly.

What about, we were talking about, okay, you have this desire to get the bag, make a bunch of money and like a lottery ticket, metaphorically, with crypto or whatever. How does this mentality, how would you say it changes consumption patterns and like the impulse to just like save or like how does it affect what people buy? That's a good question. I was talking to a friend the other day who said that she was at her younger sister's graduation on the West Coast and all of the young women were wearing Gucci sandals, like all of them at this school.

It was in the Bay Area. And she's 10 years older than her sister. And she was like, this is not something that I witnessed. And it's not like everyone there is loaded to afford this, this like specific sandal. And I know that a lot of you might have read that story in New York Magazine a few weeks ago about the West Village and this sort of homogenous looking young person in New York City. And I'm realizing that that's kind of a phenomenon across the whole country. It's like everyone is wearing the same, buying the same, like fitting into this. And millennials, back to that, it's like everybody wanted to do their own thing and listen to

their own music and have their own style and have their own tumbler or whatever. Like, it was annoying. It was annoying. But it created, like, diversity of opinions and the ability to have, like, small shows that sold out and stuff and small brands that existed and small stores that existed. But, and I haven't fully baked out the thought. But I started realizing it, like, a week ago, like the West Village thing has quickly turned into like, if you live in a flyover

state or you live in the West Village, you might be wearing the same exact outfit and be just as obsessed with like the matcha thing, whatever. So that's like definitely part of the consumption conversation. It's like you're checking off boxes of like small things that you're buying, whether it's at Starbucks or Gucci to like kind of form this perfect life of what it means to be a 25 year old. and like, okay, now I'm happy. I figured that out. Something else that I've been reading a lot about,

I have some young readers and I do a lot of surveys in my newsletter, which is awesome that my readers are even willing to spend like 15 minutes on that because I wouldn't. There's a real sentiment of like the world is burning, so why shouldn't we enjoy the things that we can? And I don't know what the savings accounts of these people look like or the credit card bills look like,

but I know that a lot of these people are spending money that they do not have because I understand that the jobs that usually facilitate that are a lot. They're paying a lot more than what these young people are making. And I imagine there's a sense that I'm never going to make enough to buy a house or something like that. And then there's like the whole buy now pay later conversation, which you can buy now, pay later. You're seamless.

Like, that's crazy. Yeah. So I think it's like you make the money, you spend the money. And they're probably not even thinking about what about my kids because that's the dating apps don't even work. So I don't know where the kids come in. Now, this is bleak. Actually, no, but this, I'm enjoying this.

So, I lived for many years of my life in Illinois. My dad was a physics professor at a very small college. And it always strikes me like that he was totally fine moving to a fairly small, large town in Illinois. When you said flyover states, is there this aspiration that, like, you have to get to one of the big cities that, like, you have to get to, like, New York or L.A. or San Francisco? I think as much as, I don't think that's, like, a new thing. I think it's like, we'll get to the West Village. Like, I don't think that every, but there's like a new grind to do that.

I think that there's just as many young people in New York living with four roommates in a one-bedroom with like weird Home Depot walls everywhere as there were when I was young. Where they're working, I mean, the three of us are all like in the creator economy. I'm sure that there's a whole micro group of young people doing the same. trying to do the same thing. We are in the creator economy. Just on the... Hey, there's a mic in front of you every day. What else are we doing?

We're creating. Yeah. Did I disagree? No, okay. We're creators. Just on the West Village girl thing and the idea of homogeneity among fashion and consumerism,

what do you think is driving that? Is that like a lack of community or... I don't know. Like, that was one of the most... shock and parse this story to me. Like, I feel so silly. If there was one person in this room with the same exact outfit as me, I'd be like, wait a second. What, how, what happens? Like, I thought I was putting something together two white pieces of clothing. But it is, it's really weird to, like, I don't know if you've ever been in one of those workout classes, but it's like they all have the set.

It's, I'm not sure what it is. I have to do some research because it's an extreme comfort with having the identical life. And I think part of it is probably like the Amazon storefront and they're all following the same influencer who's promoting the same product and everybody buys it immediately. There's this piece of clothing, I guess it was a dress, from Tori Birch a few weeks ago. And I posted it because I saw like five people at the, at different weddings on the same weekend wearing it. And it's a very distinct like hot pink dress with mirrors all over it. And I said this is going to be the wedding guest dress of the summer. Like, this is going to be everywhere.

And it's sold out the next day. Like, people were not like, then I'm not going to buy it. Everyone bought it. Like, everybody clicked the link and then bought it. Like, there's this, I think when you're all following the same people and the same brands and having the same excitement about the time people follow what time, like, clothing drops come out at these brands too, like what time the sites get updated. There's a lot more likelihood than that you're all going to buy the same thing.

Yeah, that's really weird. Like you'd think, okay, people want to be distinct. But I remember my wife and I went out to a comedy show a couple months ago, and everybody was dressed the same. And both of us were like sort of flabbergasted. What was the same? It was just like sort of black, like a sort of black shirt. I mean, you know, it's New York, so people have always worn all black.

But it was really weird. There was no color in anyone's clothes in the entire audience that night. It was very strange. How much do those Gucci sandals cost? 800? Oh, man. That's crazy. Okay.

But like a lot of, like, a lot of those. lot of money for a pair of shoes and then for everyone to feel comfort. I mean, we see it all the time with bags and stuff, but it is sort of funny when it's an entire wardrobe. Yeah. But I think... Can you talk about the burkin? What part do you want to talk about? Just talk about it. Do people still buy burkins? Like, as an investment? I don't know. Bethany Frankl said she's made like a ton of money on flipping her burkins, but... Oh, God. Flip this. That's crazy. Yeah, she's a flipper. She bought some new houses, too. One of the things that I always like reading in your newsletter is like you're always talking about new brands that are launching new restaurants,

etc. There's been, we talk about volatility in the market, all this uncertainty due to trade and whatever else. Do you feel any slowdown at all in sort of new entrepreneurial endeavors on account of all this uncertainty that's going on? Or is it just like people just powering through it? A slowdown of new economic endeavors, like from young people? Yeah, or just like new business launches. has that slowed down at all in your view with all the economic question marks? No, I think people are doing it differently, though. I don't think people are as excited to take on venture capital and they're more likely to bootstrap or attach themselves to a friend

and try something and have it to fail and sort of quietly brush it aside and be like, I didn't start that weird vodka company. It's like I don't do that anymore, you know, where I think, like, I can speak to the girl boss very well. Like the girl boss of my time of when I was like coming up in my 20s was like taking these huge checks from whatever forerun or general catalyst or whatever. I never really thought about the implications. And then I think young people have sort of learned what that means at the end, which means people are going to want some return.

And often they don't get it. So I know you were talking in your newsletter. I think it was just this week about another article in New York MAG, which was about the Hamptons and the sort of like existential stress, I guess that rich people in the hamptons. feel about their lifestyle and they feel competitive with one another. And I think you said that people were kind of like batting that away and saying that's not so much of a thing. But then on the other hand, you also wrote about weddings and how much everyone is spending on weddings nowadays, how expensive it is to be a guest. I guess my question is like what pockets of the culture, whether it's New York or beyond, are the most consumerist or wealth obsessed for you right now?

women. The thing is it's all happening all the cameras are always on. So like let's take weddings, for example, Hamptons are a different story. It's like a different economy. There's so many different facets going on there. With the weddings, it's like it used to be about the bride. And now it's about every individual at the wedding and the photo that they're getting and where the photo is going to end up after. I'm speaking from like the point of view of a of a New York woman who's like, I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but something else that I identified this morning with my husband that I think is that I think that the definition of friend

who qualifies for wedding is sort of like expanding as well. So there's this weird gift culture going on where if I invite you, then I have to invite you. And I'm expecting that you're going to invite me to yours. And I also think that there's something happening with like DMs and group texts where people are getting closer faster. And like that also events the wedding guests. lists.

Yeah. This resonates. I think someone in a group chat recently, now they're getting married. And I was like, what the heck? Why didn't I get an invite? We're in a group chat together. So I could see like that stress. I was talking to somebody before my wedding, which was two months ago, about my wedding.

And they were like, so am I invited? And I was like, no, I'm just telling you something about my life right now. But there's also an etiquette epidemic. Wait, what does that mean? What does that mean? An etiquette epidemic. Like people not holding the door for you. Oh, yeah.

People posting photos of your wedding before you do. Like, things like that. I think we're out time. That was so good. There was really, I love your newsletter. I love finally getting a chance to chat. And I think at some point we should do another longer episode just on like the group chat economy. There are so many facets.

Thank you so much, Emily. Thank you. This has been another episode of the All Thoughts podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway. And I'm Jill. Weizenthal, you can follow me at the stalwart. Follow our producers, Carmen Rodriguez, at Carmen Armin, Dashobin at Dashbot, and

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