Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Unless you’re a Millennial or Gen Zer, apparently. Then it’s a luxury reserved for the rich!
Recently, some experts have been recommending that younger generations start skipping meals to cope with exorbitant inflation rates, and the advice was quickly chewed up and spat back out by the internet. Below, you’ll find a couple of TikToks from CoyoteAnnie and Michael Vaughn that have gone viral, calling out anyone who perpetuates the idea that skipping meals is valid advice, along with an interview with Michael and some of the replies hangry Gen Zers and Millennials have left.
Some experts have been recommending that Millennials and Gen Zers start skipping breakfast to save money, and the younger generations are fed-up
Image credits: Eiliv Aceron (not the actual photo)
"Inflation will remain sticky for a decade, and Gen Z and millennials are to blame"
"...says Fortune Magazine. It's our fault again. But wait, why is it our fault?"
Image credits: coyoteannie
"According to Fortune, it's because we're spending all our money on necessities"
"In other words, Gen Z and millennials are so broke that we're spending all our money on food and housing instead of, like, luxury items. The main takeaway here is that inflation isn't going away anytime soon, but not to worry. The 1% have some advice for us peasants."
"Just don't eat to save money. Maybe you should skip breakfast. Intermittent fasting, am I right?"
"Just don't eat to save money. Maybe you should skip breakfast. Intermittent fasting, am I right? Come on, kids. Instead of spending your money on necessities like food, you should buy some junk to help me and my executive friends buy a new yacht."
"Instead of 'let them eat cake,' it's 'don't let them eat eggs'"
"Maybe we should just change the name of America to Americorp. Since we're just five companies in a trench coat pretending to be a country."
You can watch Annie's full rant right here
Content creator Michael Vaughn also joined in on the conversation, calling out this ridiculous "advice"
"I thought this was satire. I had to look it up. This is an actual article published in the actual Wall Street Journal yesterday: to save money, maybe you should skip breakfast."
Image credits: world.shaker
"We could try ending price gouging or ending stock buybacks that incentivize companies to pay shareholders instead of actually reinvesting in their businesses or lowering prices. But no, poors, skip a meal, suck it up. Like, honestly, it's guillotine time. I will build the frame, someone needs to sharpen the metal."
First it was avocado toast. Then it was oat milk lattes. Now, breakfast as a whole is being blamed for why Millennials and Gen Zers just can’t seem to save money. Forget inflation, the rising wealth gap, the pandemic and anything else outside of these younger generations’ control. Nope, it’s definitely breakfast that’s going to keep them from ever being able to buy homes or retire. All jokes aside, it seems like the younger generations cannot catch a break. They are constantly being criticized for being unable to contribute to capitalism in the same way that their parents and grandparents did (perhaps because they don’t have disposable income?), and they are called lazy time and time again.
Our parents instilled the idea in us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and apparently, it worked. 81% of Gen Zers and 72% of Millennials eat breakfast on a typical weekday. And while it’s debatable whether or not this morning meal is actually the most important, it’s definitely a great way to start your day. Registered dietician Beth Czerwony explained some of the benefits of eating breakfast to the Cleveland Clinic, noting that she’s a big proponent of starting your morning with a nutritious meal.
“Would you start a long road trip in your car with the tank on empty?” asked Czerwony. “Think of eating breakfast the same way. You’re asking a lot of your body to get moving using only your reserves.” She explains that a great breakfast can improve heart health, lower your risk of diabetes, reduce brain fog, and of course, give you plenty of energy to start your day. So it should never be an option, or a recommendation, to cut out this meal altogether.
To learn more about the TikToks that inspired this conversation, we reached out to Michael Vaughn, world.shaker on TikTok, to hear what inspired him to share this video, and he was kind enough to have a chat with us. “I have no more patience left with corporate greed or a political system that upholds the status quo while the working class is bled dry,” Michael told Bored Panda. “The fact that a major news outlet would seriously suggest that people skip a meal rather than ask millionaires and billionaires to not squeeze blood from a stone is outrageous and absurd. The editors of the Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of themselves for publishing such stupid [things].”
We also asked Michael if he had any recommendations for what Gen Zers and Millennials can actually do to combat inflation. “The problem isn’t inflation, it’s corporate greed. It’s stock buybacks that reward shareholders, the vast majority of whom are the ultrarich, rather than reinvesting profits into company growth and the wages of the employees who propelled that success,” he explained. “The egg industry decries an egg shortage while also celebrating their record profits. That’s greed, not inflation. WIth inflation, everyone struggles. With corporate greed, corporations profit at the expense of the middle and working classes. THAT’S what’s happening.”
“And I’d say we could vote for candidates that believe someone with a billion dollars now could possibly find some way to survive on ‘just’ $250 million instead, but the American political system in its current form is corrupted beyond repair to protect these vultures,” Michael went on to explain. “How can we tell people ‘just vote’ when the Senate insists on a moronic Jim Crow era rule requiring 60 votes to pass anything, leaving us at a perpetual standstill?”
“How can we tell people ‘just vote’ when the US Supreme Court has allowed states like North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and Florida to handpick their voters with surgical precision by drawing their own voting districts that disenfranchise tens of millions of voters? That’s not democracy,” Michael told Bored Panda. “It’s pure, unfiltered capitalism, and it’s a poison. I was only half joking when I said maybe it’s time for guillotines. The political systems that are meant to reign in corporate greed have been weaponized against the American people to steal even more wealth for the uber wealthy. What other options have we truly been left with when they’ve taken away everything else?”
And as far as what Michael would like to say to the people recommending that we skip meals, we can’t repeat it right here, but let’s just say he wouldn’t be very friendly... If you’d like to keep up with Michael and see more of his TikToks discussing anything from parenting struggles to social issues, be sure to visit his page world.shaker right here!
It is obviously absurd for wealthy people to tout the benefits of skipping breakfast to less affluent individuals who just want to make ends meet without having to struggle or starve. Eating breakfast should not be a privilege, but luckily, Millennials and Gen Zers have not bought into this corporate propaganda. We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below, pandas, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article discussing normal things that have become luxuries over time, check out this story next.
Viewers were livid, with many noting that they can barely afford necessities as it is
