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How dehumanising it is when rich people tell those further down the economic food chain they shouldn’t have any small pleasures
I have ordered avocado toast a few times in my life, and its mark-up has never particularly appalled me. It is bad value in the same way Starbucks coffee is bad value, or a $20 lipstick, or any of the other extravagances that fly beneath the radar even of those who are trying to save money.
This month, these items again fell under the moralising gaze of people higher up the economic food chain. “When I was trying to buy my first home,” said Tim Gurner, a multimillionaire property developer, “I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each.” He joined Jason Chaffetz, a Republican congressman, who told low-income Americans in March they should forego smartphones in order to buy health insurance, and those who ask why people “on welfare” insist on smoking. Avocado toast widens the criticism to a larger income bracket, but the principle is the same: you are where you are not for any structural reasons, but because you are a feckless individual.
May 25, 2017 at 09:39PM
from Emma Brockes
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