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I believe, in spirit, what he was referring to was the inordinate premium young people spend for conveniences. He doesn’t have anything against avocado toast, e

I believe, in spirit, what he was referring to was the inordinate premium young people spend for conveniences. He doesn’t have anything against avocado toast, except for the fact that it costs $1.25 to make, but restaurants in NYC or any large city may charge $12 before gratuity for it. No lie, I’ve seen a slice of avocado toast on a menu for $12. It made me irate. When I go out to eat, I optimize for price, and difficulty to make at home. Thus, I often opt for Ribs with brusselsprouts, because both take a lot of time: tending to the grill, chopping annoying Brussels in half…etc. Even then, you can mess it up, rendering your time spent wasted. I’ve eaten bangin’ ribs with Brussels for $25. Avocado toast takes 2 min, tops and requires 0 skill. I think that’s the point he was trying to make.

wenebego 3y ago
You're defending his point while simultaneously missing it. See this quote: "There was no discussions around, could I go out for breakfast, could I go out for dinner."
UncleMeat 3y ago
This is ridiculous, IMO. When you go out to eat you should optimize for pleasure, not the difficulty of constructing a dish. Avocado Toast was chosen in the "young people suck" articles because it was trendy, not because it simple. Look at the other complaint - espresso drinks at cafes. People whine that young people could save more money if they just stopped buying lattes. Given that virtually nobody has an espresso machine at home, this is the polar opposite of the "well, you can make it at home" situation. No. The complaint is "young people should stop complaining about their economic fortunes because it is their own damn fault." Nothing to do with trading money for convenience.
- notyourwork 3y ago
  I think it is some of both. Doing without or compromising for your own financial well being is well established pattern. For example, don’t buy or lease a car beyond your means is a perfect example of a poor decision that holds one back. Our society doesn’t help with offering 8-year car loans and sales people convincing a young adult how affordable the vehicle is. So in some ways younger generations are not setup for success. Their own fault. In some ways they create their own self-demise. Eating out constantly when making your own food or coffee is a perfectly viable option. In total, society owes it to itself to ensure future generations are successful. I don’t think we’re doing that well enough.
  - UncleMeat 3y ago
    If the complaints were about major things like high interest car loans or living without roommates in your early 20s then sure, I'm confident that there are plenty of young people who are making very expensive financial decisions without thinking it through. But "why can't young people afford houses" is well explained by student loans and high home prices even for financially careful young people.
    - notyourwork 3y ago
      And student loans are one of those things where society didn’t setup a future generation for success due to their own greed.
- deleted 3y ago
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FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago
> I believe, in spirit, what he was referring to was the inordinate premium young people spend for conveniences. And why shouldnt they? It's not like not spending that money would have allowed them to buy a home. If rich people would have shared more, making things like buying a home possible, you would most definitely see more people skipping avocado toasts. But rich people fucked everyone over, so might as well go for the little things in life.
P_I_Staker 3y ago
Brussel sprouts can be made well very easily, idk what you're talking about
camgunz 3y ago
Nah, he's 100% a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" guy. He goes around making a bunch of assertions for which he has no evidence, but conveniently confirm his worldview and require him to change his habits not at all. I googled "how much do millennials spend on avocado toast" and got a bazillion results with sources about how it's not an issue. I also just googled "australia tradies productivity" and after some reading, it seems a lot more likely that the slowdown in productivity is from firm consolidation leading to a lack of competition. If he really cared about this stuff, he'd be advocating for stricter antitrust (monopoly regulation is I think what it's called in Australia) rules, but weirdly you find almost no multimillionaire business owners doing so. Instead they spend their column inches arguing that we need to whip the rowers harder so the boat goes faster. Or hey, CEO pay spiked too, meaning they've also been paid a lot more to do at least the same amount of work they were doing. Is he also advocating for higher levels of unemployment for the CEO class? Definitely not! > No lie, I’ve seen a slice of avocado toast on a menu for $12. It made me irate. For a point we have in common, I have problems in most Italian restaurants because of exactly this. I'm like, "I know this cost $4 and 15min to make, why does it cost $25". Yeah yeah I know I'm subsidizing the steak or whatever, but: - I probably more than make up for that w/ my drink orders - I still don't like it! (lol)
deleted 3y ago
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wenebego 3y ago

You're defending his point while simultaneously missing it. See this quote: "There was no discussions around, could I go out for breakfast, could I go out for dinner."

UncleMeat 3y ago

This is ridiculous, IMO. When you go out to eat you should optimize for pleasure, not the difficulty of constructing a dish. Avocado Toast was chosen in the "young people suck" articles because it was trendy, not because it simple. Look at the other complaint - espresso drinks at cafes. People whine that young people could save more money if they just stopped buying lattes. Given that virtually nobody has an espresso machine at home, this is the polar opposite of the "well, you can make it at home" situation. No. The complaint is "young people should stop complaining about their economic fortunes because it is their own damn fault." Nothing to do with trading money for convenience.

notyourwork 3y ago
I think it is some of both. Doing without or compromising for your own financial well being is well established pattern. For example, don’t buy or lease a car beyond your means is a perfect example of a poor decision that holds one back. Our society doesn’t help with offering 8-year car loans and sales people convincing a young adult how affordable the vehicle is. So in some ways younger generations are not setup for success. Their own fault. In some ways they create their own self-demise. Eating out constantly when making your own food or coffee is a perfectly viable option. In total, society owes it to itself to ensure future generations are successful. I don’t think we’re doing that well enough.
- UncleMeat 3y ago
  If the complaints were about major things like high interest car loans or living without roommates in your early 20s then sure, I'm confident that there are plenty of young people who are making very expensive financial decisions without thinking it through. But "why can't young people afford houses" is well explained by student loans and high home prices even for financially careful young people.
  - notyourwork 3y ago
    And student loans are one of those things where society didn’t setup a future generation for success due to their own greed.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago

> I believe, in spirit, what he was referring to was the inordinate premium young people spend for conveniences. And why shouldnt they? It's not like not spending that money would have allowed them to buy a home. If rich people would have shared more, making things like buying a home possible, you would most definitely see more people skipping avocado toasts. But rich people fucked everyone over, so might as well go for the little things in life.

P_I_Staker 3y ago

Brussel sprouts can be made well very easily, idk what you're talking about

camgunz 3y ago

Nah, he's 100% a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" guy. He goes around making a bunch of assertions for which he has no evidence, but conveniently confirm his worldview and require him to change his habits not at all. I googled "how much do millennials spend on avocado toast" and got a bazillion results with sources about how it's not an issue. I also just googled "australia tradies productivity" and after some reading, it seems a lot more likely that the slowdown in productivity is from firm consolidation leading to a lack of competition. If he really cared about this stuff, he'd be advocating for stricter antitrust (monopoly regulation is I think what it's called in Australia) rules, but weirdly you find almost no multimillionaire business owners doing so. Instead they spend their column inches arguing that we need to whip the rowers harder so the boat goes faster. Or hey, CEO pay spiked too, meaning they've also been paid a lot more to do at least the same amount of work they were doing. Is he also advocating for higher levels of unemployment for the CEO class? Definitely not! > No lie, I’ve seen a slice of avocado toast on a menu for $12. It made me irate. For a point we have in common, I have problems in most Italian restaurants because of exactly this. I'm like, "I know this cost $4 and 15min to make, why does it cost $25". Yeah yeah I know I'm subsidizing the steak or whatever, but: - I probably more than make up for that w/ my drink orders - I still don't like it! (lol)

deleted 3y ago

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