[lotsofpulp]

Happiness = Reality minus Expectation (and sadness is the negative values).

For example, if you expected your country to have checks and balances and not empower people who tried to damage the democracy, the reality would sadden you.

If you expected to be able to have 2 kids, afford healthcare, not worry about loss of income, live near family in a 2k+ sq ft home, and fly to Disneyworld and Hawaii for vacation, then chances are reality would not have met your expectations. Perhaps TV shows/movies gave you those impressions? Or seeing others' instagram posts?

But if you expected a smaller home, not eating avocados everyday, driving a few hours for your vacations, limited amounts of healthcare, etc, then maybe reality would exceed expectations for more people.

[nyeah]

Right. We just need to kill off three key unrealistic expectations: democracy, medical care, and avocados. Once we relax and give up on those three things, we'll be happy again.

[wat10000]

I wonder how avocados became the poster child for unreasonably expensive food. They're not actually that costly.

[lotsofpulp]

I'm in Washington, and they're usually at least $1 each in season, and even close to $2 out of season at Costco. Factor in some amount not being good, 20% at least, and I probably spend at least $1,000 per year just on avocados for a family of 4.

I imagine they are just as, if not more expensive, in places further from Mexico.

[nyeah]

Hard to say. They're much cheaper per pound than ground beef here in the Northeast.

[lotsofpulp]

Shouldn’t protein be expected to be more expensive?

[nyeah]

I dunno. If people eat hamburger on a bun, we approve. If they eat avocado on toast, we disapprove. That's a luxury item. Ok.

[lotsofpulp]

It’s just a meme, no serious person disapproves of avocados due to price. However, both avocados and meat are higher priced foods that would be foregone in the event of a cash crunch.

[nyeah]

I hear you. No serious person disapproves of avocados due to price. However at $1.00 to $2.50 a pound they are a higher-priced food. Another higher-priced food is meat at $6-$20 a pound.

Conscientious shoppers, or those in a cash crunch, might do better with simple, inexpensive foods. For example canned beans cost only $1-$1.50 a pound.

[cucumber3732842]

Because all the boomers and a lot of genX grew up with them being something that was ludicrously expensive due to rapid transit costs that now no longer exist now that we know how (other than sheer speed) to keep them from spoiling between tree and grocery store and around the same time that we got good at that we lifted a ban on mexican imports.

It used to be oranges that were the luxury fruit.

[gavinray]

My grandfather told me that for Christmas one year as a child, he got a fresh orange.

[ButlerianJihad]

Only one year? And was that his only gift?

My sister and I received fresh oranges in our Christmas stockings every year. Along with nuts and chocolate and goodies like that. Of course, the "Christmas stocking" event was tied with St. Nicholas' Day on December 6, where it was traditional to place our shoes on the fireplace overnight, but the stockings were stretchy and higher-capacity than children's shoes!

Also, the fresh oranges were sort of ironic, because a tangerine tree grew in our backyard. I've always preferred tangerines.

Mom always packed fresh fruit with my school lunches. I had never heard or experienced the trading of food at lunch, and so I resorted to discarding the parts of lunch which I didn't want to eat. Oranges were the first to go. It wasn't the taste of oranges that I disliked, it was the stickiness and the labor involved in peeling them and getting past the rind and pith.

[cucumber3732842]

>Only one year? And was that his only gift?

Really depends on the year and the region. Cheap oranges can only follow where the reefer truck and boxcar go.

[anovikov]

What the hell is wrong about avocados really? They are a cheap staple food.

[cjs_ac]

The avocado meme started in Australia, where avocados are expensive due to their water requirements, and where there’s been a housing crisis for at least twenty years.

[bigfatkitten]

It wasn’t the cost of avocados as a raw ingredient.

An opinion columnist for one of Rupert Murdoch’s ‘newspapers’ blamed the decline in home ownership amongst millennials on excessive spending on discretionary food, specifically avocado on toast in cafes.

He suggested that if they cut back on such minor luxuries, they could afford to buy houses.

https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/bernard-salt-says-his-smashed...

[Danox]

The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK all have housing and affordability problems, out of the five I can understand the UK but the other four countries I absolutely do not…

What do they all have in common English similar economies and relatively similar governments.

[defrost]

In Australia the root cause is likely policy that rewards rather than penalises multiple home ownership as investment, leading to flow on effects that raise prices and doesn't boost building.

However not all would agree with that and each stake holding group has a different take on things.

eg: The Australian home builders industry group, the HIA, throw shade on increased costs and government fees and push back on other hot takes here:

https://hia.com.au/our-industry/newsroom/economic-research-a...

I lived through my peers struggling to get a single house built or rennovated in early 80's and later and watched finnancial incentives made it easier and easier to get a second, a third, a fourth house just as happens in Monopoly

Hand in hand with that, those people with houses as assets could afford to bid higher against each other for that fifth house .. pushing out those younger and just entering the scene.

It's hard to discount the rapid rise of a landlord class as being a significant factor.