From the earlier comments. We were discussing the anti-capitalist protest. The line 'aren't protesters even allowed to have a coffee now?' was used on QT yesterday, to excuse the protesters their Starbucks and bottled water and wifi and laptops and phones and pop up tents and general privileges. It was successfully used on HIGNFY to destroy Louise Mencsh. A bit unfairly too. The point is not whether a protester should be allowed a drink of coffee.Its that coffee was, and is, a major global trading commodity. It is almost THE symbol of globalisation and commerce. Coffee was traded between 15th century Europe and North Africa as a major commodity in the spice caravans. The Venetians traded coffee to sell at outrageous prices to the Venetian elite. Introduced into England it was taxed by the gallon, so was brewed and then stored cold in barrels awaiting reheating. Sounds lovely!
By the time of the Great Fire of 1666 there were 80 coffee houses in London. They were similar to today's where people went to meet socially and read the pamphlets and get some work done, have a business meeting, use the place as an office,and exchange information. The Lloyd's coffee house in Lombard Street was a good example. Edward Lloyd's little coffee house was a meeting place for merchants and shipowners. It grew into the Lloyds of London insurance market. By 1675 there were 3,000 coffee houses in England.
Coffee is environmentally unfriendly, has directly led to the millions of deaths of the indigenous peoples of South and Central America, Caribbean and Asia. The revolution in Haiti was partly African slaves revolting against the terrible coffee harvesting conditions. Coffee was a major contributor to world slavery. Between 1511 and 1886 over 1 million slaves were imported from Africa to Cuba in order to work their crops. That's just Cuba. Imagine the numbers in Brazil? Coffee is still mostly grown in the developing world. Vietnam is the second largest world producer after Brazil. {That's a world second after using private market reforms. Under the state central planning they couldn't grow enough for their own needs.}
The coffee trade encourages inequality in wages throughout the globe. Coffee growers claim unfair payment for crops. Coffee shop workers are in the poorly paid hospitality/retail sector. And coffee profits are immense. It is a product, sold with up to 1000% mark up, that directly caused the 2-300% UK high street rent rises of the the mid 90's. Those rises collapsed other long standing businesses who couldn't pay the 'new' market rates.
Mobile phone shops were another contributor, but it started with Starbucks. Starbucks started with some coffee enthusiasts and some savings from friends. Its now a global empire. But it has been attacked along the way for its supposed poor wages and reducing benefits for its employees in hard times and its unfair payments to farmers and a whole host of other wails from the left. It was a popular anti-globilisation target before that pointless movement morphed into the current even more pointless occupy ones.
It was also a target for environmentalists, save the earth's water supplies, recycling movements, unions, unfair competition lobbies and just about everyone else too. Its a miracle they ever got to so many stores {17,000 odd} and 135,000 employers, and serve 5-10 million people every day.
So coffee today is still almost THE defining symbol of capitalism.
So, no. No-one objects to a thirsty protester having a break from singing folk songs and engaging with like minded believers deciding to pop over to Starbucks for a Doubleshot® Energy+Cinnamon Dolce Drink and a Blueberry Oat Bar.
Its just that if they do, they are rather enjoying and feeding probably everything they ever campaigned against, whilst they refresh under the very logo of capitalism..
{What really tickles is the latest from Wall Street.}
After the end of trading Thursday, Starbucks (ticker: SBUX) reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $358.4 million, or 47 cents a share, up from 37 cents in the year-ago period. The quarter included a 10-cent gain related to real-estate sales and joint venture acquisitions. Revenue increased 6.8% to $3.03 billion. Analysts were predicting earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $2.95 billion. Investors were abuzz about the results, sending shares up 7.4% to an all-time high of $44.48 in morning trading.