The rise and fall of the “millennial lifestyle subsidy”

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

Venture capitalists spent years subsidizing the price of things like Uber rides and food delivery. The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson explains why they’ve stopped. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's today explained, I'm Newell King.
0:02.4	I have bad eyes and psychotic spatial reasoning
0:06.5	and a perverse sense of direction.
0:08.5	And as a result, I do not own a car.
0:10.9	So for a decade-ish, I've relied on the apps,
0:14.0	the Ubers, the grocery delivery.
0:16.5	They've made my life easier and they've been cheap.
0:19.2	When you've been ordering an Uber or ordering a lift
0:21.9	or getting something delivered on DoorDash
0:24.5	and you paid a price for it,
0:26.8	almost every time you were paying that price,
0:28.5	I would argue that you were getting a little bit of a subsidy
0:31.3	from venture capital.
0:32.3	A subsidy.
0:33.3	The reason we were all paying prices
0:35.3	that seemed literally too low
0:38.1	was that those startups wanted us as customers
0:41.0	and they were happy to undercharge.
0:43.3	And I call this whole arrangement
0:45.5	the Millennial Lifestyle subsidy.
0:47.5	God, you're wise.
0:49.8	God, you're right now.
	...

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