It used to be thought an all consuming lust for cocaine and gambling would shred your bank account and leave you on the streets, but millennials must now simply beware the perils of the humble avo.

Ebola, mass immigration, ice and ISIS may have run their course as nifty media tools to frighten and control the masses.

Step forward the avocado, or specifically $22 breakfasts of the smashed, creamy green stuff on five-grain toast, sprinkled with feta down your local hipster cafe.

Those carefree, indulgent brekkies are a major reason why young Aussies can't get on the property ladder right now, according to Bernard Salt's weekend column in The Australian .

Yes, it's not that over the last 30 years property prices across Australia have risen, and continue to grow, at a rate faster than San Francisco, home of tech billionaires, and America's most expensive real estate market.

"I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more," opines Salt.

"But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn't they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house."

Just last week, Business Insider reported Sydney's median house price at $1.047 million. Assuming a 20 percent deposit of $200,000 – that is 9090 breakfasts in hardcore Saltonomics.

But maybe don't shoot the messenger. Salt's views, which he espoused as a call to arms for all "Middle Aged Moralisers", may simply underline the possibility that the Australia of today is the most unequal this nation has ever been.

Greed for avocados is no good, writes Bernard Salt, columnist for The Australian. Source: Supplied / Twitter/Maria Lewis.

"In a country that prides itself on its egalitarian traditions, the reality of income and wealth inequality in Australia comes as a shock to many," stated a 2015 report by Australian Council of Social Service (ACSS).

It found inequality in Australia is higher than the OECD average. Between 1995 and 2012, income of the top 5 percent of earners rose 78 percent, while income of the bottom 20 percent rose 44 percent.

These are different times, tougher times than days of yore. Salt boasted he had the right to eat those avo breakfasts at will "because I am middle-aged and have raised my family".

In 1975 it took the average first-time buyer in Sydney just three years to save a deposit for a home. Today it will take nine, according to a 2015 report by economic consultancy LF Economics.