Too much too young
They're striking camp at T in the Park, with many of the tents abandoned as cheap and disposable.
One teenager I know claimed to have bought a new tent for her and three friends at £22.
At £170 for a ticket, it suggests the recession hasn't hobbled the spending power of music festival-goers.
And even if the tents are cheap, that's just the start of the costs of this rite of youth passage.
Read more about that from the .
This brings to mind the curious contrasts of the way this recession is affecting young people.
It's a truism that the debts being built up by government will weigh heavily on their tax bills for decades to come.
Jobs scrapheap
Likewise, the cost of looking after us baby boomers in our retirement, when too few of us have made adequate preparations.
It's also clear from the unemployment figures that young people are taking the brunt of the recession, and we haven't yet seen the impact of the first cohort of school leavers and college/university graduates to try to enter the job market in the teeth of recession.
Those of an age to get into higher and further education are finding competition heating up with others thrown on the jobs scrapheap and wanting to get themselves some new skills.
Possibly this week's update on the figures will reflect young people's struggle, while anecdotal evidence shows students on their long summer break are struggling to find jobs.
Yet there's also evidence that that the age group is ignoring the impact of recession.
It's not just the impression I get from shopping on Glasgow's Buchanan Street this weekend, where the age profile was heavily biased to the young.
It's also clear from retailers' own evidence.
Not bullish
Among those with profits holding up well or surging ahead are clothes shops aimed at the young and the most fashion-conscious - the age group most likely to pay full price for the right look and the right labels.
That includes New Look, Primark and online clothing company Asos, which recently reported sales doubling in the 12 months to March, with profits up 93%, and a further rise in sales since the start of April of 52%.
That partly reflects the shift to online shopping, though company founder Nick Robinson told the market he is not bullish about that growth path continuing.
He can see his target market, aged up to 34, may be about to hit the spending buffers.
So what's going on with the young consumer?
One explanation is a sense of entitlement, built up as the children of the long boom years.
Boozing habits
A survey covering Britain, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Australia and reported in the Financial Times last week showed British youth to be unusually fond of their clothes spending.
Asked what they would never give up, no matter how bad their finances got, Brits put clothes in fourth place behind the internet, mobile phone and satellite TV.
They were much more likely to give up their boozing habits than Americans, while Canadians and Australians put movie-going high up their priorities in a recession.
Brazilians virtuously put their college costs as their most important outgoing.
All nationalities agreed they could probably do with fewer magazine subs, taxis and music downloads.
Another explanation for the strength of youth spending is that studenthood in Britain now involves such a high level of indebtedness that a bit of recession is only going to add to scarily large repayment bills and shouldn't be allowed to dampen their enthusiastic consumerism.
And given that the age at which people enter the property ownership ladder is on the way up, along with more people staying longer with their parents, disposable cash can more readily be splashed on living for today.
Let's not forget the obvious explanation for this paradox: that 'young people' are an exceptionally diverse group about whom I shouldn't even try to generalise.
Pester power
Maybe so, but don't think the young are oblivious to the seriousness of the economic situation.
Yet another survey, this time for Asda, this weekend showed children are much more concerned about their parents' finances than their parents realise.
Questioning 1,000 adults and 600 children aged between seven and 16, the supermarket's market research arm found 18% of parents thought their children are concerned about the family's finances, while 55% of the young people agreed.
They claim even to have throttled back on pester power as a result.
And two-thirds of those aged between 12 and 16 say they are concerned about getting a job when they're older.
If they have to spoil their childhood worrying, they might do better to consider the impact of spending cuts on their school, college and university budgets.
Hullo, I'm Douglas Fraser, and I'm business and economy editor at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland. Welcome to my blog, where you can read my take on money matters, viewed from a Scottish perspective.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Jul 2009, nine2ninetysix wrote:"Too much too young"
As it was in the sixties and seventies, Isle of Wight Etc.
It is now T in the Park and Glasto.
And probably always will be.
Only difference is that I kept the tent and used it again.
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Comment number 2.
At 13th Jul 2009, uk_abz_scot wrote:Douglas - two points
You are forgetting that there are six million public sector workers who have not been hit by the recession. These people have safe public sector pensions.
I'm a private sector worker. Like many others I get letters every year from private section pension providers. These letters say "your pension pot is worth even less than last year". To add insult to injury they say "seek professional advice". HA HA - that is what I and others did. We would have been better off stuffing our cash in a cardboard box under the bed. (You lose a little bit from inflation - but are insulated from stock market crashes, management fees etc.) My best investment in the last two years has been the EURO. (Bet you won't get that advice in the Scottish press!)
My advice to young people is to forget saving for pensions as (unless you work in the public sector) they are a waste of money. The young people might as well enjoy T in the Park or whatever, but hang on to the left over Euros from the holidays in Ibiza.
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Comment number 3.
At 13th Jul 2009, oldnat wrote:#2 uk_abz_scot
"six million public sector workers"
That's a dramatic figure! In 2001 only 2,261,281 people in Scotland were in employment of any kind.
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Comment number 4.
At 14th Jul 2009, uk_abz_scot wrote:#3 oldnat
It might come as a surprise to the SNP bloggers but we are still part of the UK (hence my six million public sector workers) and people from south of Hadrian's Wall are allowed to visit Scotland. (Indeed I thought the SNP administration were running some sort of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖcoming campaign.)
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Comment number 5.
At 14th Jul 2009, oldnat wrote:#4 uk_abz_scot
And we even allow Europeans and Americans, and all sorts of other people to attend too! You forgot to mention their public sector workers.
Why do so many Unionists seem so keen to redraw the border on the Carlisle - Newcastle axis? I'm not objecting, but you might at least ask the people of Alnwick, Blyth etc whether they want to come under the Scottish Parliament.
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Comment number 6.
At 16th Jul 2009, uk_abz_scot wrote:#5 oldnat - the point I was making is that the public sector in the UK hasn't seen the impact of the recession (regardless of where the border is or was).
If you take a look at the Irish Republic (e.g. www independent ie ) you see that the public sector is starting to take a hit in the Irish Republic.
P.S. Hadrian's Wall is used by many folk as it was the first notable division of Britain into two parts. I must confess I thought the official SNP view was that it should have been a moat!
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