Let My Espresso Beans Go
Seattle residents have resoundingly said "No!" to a proposed 10-cent tax on espresso or espresso-based coffees. The proposition was put on the ballot to fund better daycare for poor families, but Seattle residents figure there's a better way to do that than taxing their favorite beverage. I can't disagree.
"As we said all along, this is the wrong way to fund child care," said Stephanie Bowman, coordinator for Joined to Oppose the Latte Tax, or JOLT.
"Everybody should be paying for these programs, not just coffee drinkers. Not with a gimmick like the Seattle latte tax," Bowman said.
Although I would have thought that in Seattle "everybody" and "coffee drinkers" were synonymous terms.
Comments
Speaking of coffee and seattle (is that redundantly redundant?) I just noticed the cafeteria where I work has switched from serving plain seattle's best (as if that exists in their catalog) to "fair trade" seattle's best coffee. A cup of coffee, just coffee, not latte, not espresso, no syrup added now costs somewhere above $1.50. "Fair trade" coffee costs $9.50 retail. Allowing for cost of the cup and labor they sell 9 cups and have covered the retail cost of 12 oz of free trade gounds. WHo do you suppose ends up with the profit they are making on this "fair trade" coffee? I'll give you a hint, it ain't Juan Valdez or his mule.
Okay some enlightened in-duh-vidual has decided what is fair to me, and the sellers of coffee, and all the inbetween agents. But what do they accomplish? I mean besides a not so cheap marketing ploy. (A quik look-see indicates about a 50% mark-up from the free trade version)
DO these non-economic people understand that free trade, absent the meddling of pompous fools, brings the market price down to where there is no excess profit? It also maximizes total profit and consumer surplus. Free trade freed of the trappings of (un)fair trade trends towards fairest interaction far better than some self-important fool's subjective market outcome goal.
These people really want fair trade? They ought to be on shrub's administration for unilateral free trade. We don't need the WTO or NAFTA or any other internatinal body to have fair trade with the rest of the world. You want to sell your wares here? Bring them. You want buy our stuff? Store's open. No restrictions. (Okay national security stuff like aircraft carriers and nuclear processing plants and ultra high technology stufflike missle guidance systems can be restricted. But can you call farm produce restrictions a national security issue? Do you need to pay more for your sugar so that beet farmers in Idaho can get a subsidy?
Posted by: Justin | September 17, 2003 12:19 PM
I don't drink coffee, it ruins the taste of vodka.
Posted by: exile | September 17, 2003 03:46 PM
I really didn;t think much about this but after spending the last three days in the Seattle area I guess it's not a setrotype, coffe is avalable everywhere. Hotels, car rentels, supermarkets. There is very few places you cant get a cup, and the places for getting the more exotic verities are all over the place.
The place is wired in more ways then one.
Posted by: Rick DeMent | September 17, 2003 04:24 PM