Poor financial situation blamed on millennials eating smashed avocado
Image: night owl/flickr creative commons
Housing affordability is a real problem for young people in Australia. But according to one columnist, millennials would be able to afford property if they simply stopped eating so much “smash avocado with crumbed feta on five-grain toasted bread.” Seems legit.
Writing for The Australiannewspaper, Bernard Salt has had it up to *here* with these young cafe-dwelling whippersnappers with their soy this and intersectional that.
“I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more. I can afford to eat this for lunch because I am middle aged and have raised my family. But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn’t they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house,” he writes.
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But Salt’s not the only one who is suggesting a magic bullet that will fix all the financial problems Gen Y has inherited from the very people so keen to criticize them.
Industrial relations expert Grace Collier told a live audience on ABC’s Q&A Monday night that unemployed people should simply start their own business. Presto! You’re gainfully employed, your business is thriving, and you’re rich. Congrats, millennial. Success unlocked.
Work out what we are good at, start your own businesses, says @MsGraceCollier @RichardDiNatale disagrees #QandA https://t.co/Y1vQstWsdW
ABC Q&A (@QandA) October 17, 2016
Both parties seems to subscribe to the Field of Dreams school of thought. If you “start a business” or “stopping eating smashed avo,” money will come.
Needless to say, actual young people with first-person perspective of the dire property prices and Australia’s unemployment rate have some thoughts and feelings on both Salt and Collier’s “insights.”
I go out for breakfast because *even if I didn’t* I couldn’t come close to a house deposit. so just shut up & take my rent money
Lucy Valentine (@LucyXIV) October 16, 2016
Given I’m allergic to avocado and cannot enjoy smashed avo lunches it is particularly galling that I’m not a property mogul already
Rachael Lonergan (@RachaelHasIdeas) October 15, 2016
@BernardSalt is right of course, just give up $22 a week and you’ll have a deposit on a median priced house in Sydney in… 175 years.
Kyle Sheldrick (@K_Sheldrick) October 15, 2016
so if I stop eating smashed avocado three times a day I save…. $22,000 or so!! Only nine more years of this https://t.co/jO2gcFyj3g
Angus Livingston (@anguslivingston) October 16, 2016
In Grace Collier’s case, it was less about figures and more about feels. Rage feels.
Grace Collier: what she lacks in class, sensitivity and intelligence, she more than makes up for in volume, arrogance and snark. #qanda
Dave Donovan (@davrosz) October 17, 2016
Grace Collier: “Unemployed? Start a business.” …um, half of new businesses fail and you need start up capital. Fail, you go broke. #qanda
Adam Spence (@AdamSpenceAU) October 17, 2016
Grace Collier says unemployed people should start their own businesses. If starving people lack for bread, let them eat cake. #QandA
Jinho Choi (@GoldenTalon) October 17, 2016
In conclusion, baby boomers are the worst and should never tweet. You can take away our opportunity to ever own our own homes, old people. But you will NEVER take our brunch!
Read more: http://mashable.com/2016/10/17/millennials-respond-to-smashed-avocado-criticism/