A wise man once said, ‘stop eating avocado toast, you stupid millennials, and then you’ll finally be able to get on to the property ladder and not be forced to live in such inordinate debt and crippling fear of the future’.

I’m paraphrasing of course, but Tim Gurner, millionaire and property mogul’s sentiment remains: “when I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each”, Gurner told Australian news in early May.

Admittedly, a sound suggestion – saving money on luxury items is a good idea. But, fundamentally flawed in its delivery.

You see, Mr Gurner began his career as a property investor (he’s currently working on around $3.8 billion worth of projects) after purchasing a gym, with the help of $34,000 borrowed from his grandfather. So… I guess it wasn’t his restraint from millennial treats that allowed him to flourish after all, but the hefty sum he just happened to be able to borrow from his minted family.

“Anyone squeezed for money is very conscious of indulging, and to question their motive for doing so infantilises and degrades them”

What our mate Tim seems to have forgotten is that a London house deposit costs about the same as 24,499 £4.50 portions of avocado toast. Eating this just once a week (think a nice Sunday brunch) would mean it would take over 470 years to make a 20% down payment. Goddammit millennials, you’re all so useless! Shirking about with your needless spending and overly indulgent habits! What are you scroungers like!

Gurner’s words have been compared to the provocative comments of US congressman Jason Chaffetz, who suggested to millennials that “maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own healthcare.” Or I guess, Chaffetz, millennials could have both, if the US health system wasn’t so obscene.

I get it, I really do, that these comments (although truly, awfully, foully conveyed) prompt millennials to consider their spending habits. But, in the vast majority of cases there really is nothing to be considered; the issue isn’t even really about trying to save on luxury items, because a huge amount of millennials don’t have such expendable incomes anyway. These comments target the privileged few who are able to ‘splurge’ in the first place. No-one scrimping knowingly blows money on cloud eggs or rainbow bagels or trips to cat cafes. Anyone squeezed for money is very conscious of indulging, and to question their motive for doing so infantilises and degrades them.

Selfies – narcissistic or not?

What really needs to be considered is our attitude towards millennial spending in general, and the reasons why we are forced to economise so tightly. Could it be the housing crisis? The fracturing economy? The strain of unpaid internships and zero hour contracts? The debilitating university fees? The elimination of maintenance grants and rocketing prices of basically everything? Or is it simply that millennials are too dumb to recognise the need to work hard, try hard, save hard, and even then, forgo any small luxuries which make such toil worth it? Perhaps