this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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They'll keep it up as long as business is good. If people will pay 12$ for a latte and lines are out the door, and there are no regulations to stop price gouging and predatory behavior, why wouldn't they?
Oh there are definitely laws to stop price gauging but that's for small businesses and individuals who aren't rich.
Isn't a café the very definition of a small business?
Yeah Starbucks sure is tiny.
I wouldn’t really call them a café, just a chain where you can buy drinks made from burnt-to-shit coffee beans.
That's okay. The coffee beans to chocolate, whip cream , soy milk, and extra caffeine ratio is like 1:99.
You forgot the ten tablespoons of sugar that eats your insides to hide the taste of shit beans.
It's not even a matter of "why wouldn't they," do much as a matter of they must.
Absent of regulations, any company that doesn't abandon every conceivable human moral in pursuit of more profit will find itself hopelessly out-competed by the ones that do. If your every competitor is charging $12 for a latte and paying their employees starvation wages, and you charge a reasonable amount and pay your employees a decent wage, then every hour you're in business your competitors will be making more money than you, and you will always fall behind, unless something comes along to close that gap.
Libertarians might try to say that eventually the free market will close the gap, but adults know otherwise. The free market doesn't give a shit about human decency, the environment, the value of mom and pop businesses, or any of that. The free market can only ever want to make more money, every year, at a faster rate of increase, every year. Forever.
Government is the only thing that can reasonably account for how things should be. Regulations are the only reason we don't have 80 hour work weeks and children in the mines.
Is $12 for a latte even price gouging?
Like, $12 for milk and eggs? $12 for a pound of veggies or a gallon of gas or a jug of water during a hurricane? Sure.
But I can buy a bag of beans for $12 and make ten cups easy. I just don't know if I'd call it price gouging because you're willing to pay out the nose for foamed milk.
It is like people who continue to feed ticketmaster and the resale markets with their predatory fees and prices. Why shouldn't they keep doing it if people will keep paying their insane prices for nonessentials?
Legit not arguing but other than going to the physical box office, what alternatives are there to Ticketmaster? I would love to know so I can stop giving them money.
Absolutely. There is no real alternative for most people but at least it isn't a necessity. They have a nice monopoly going.
Just go to venues where you buy direct.
I try when possible but time and distance, and some lack box offices, don't always make this an option. I can't afford the overpriced shows anyway.
Go to venues that you deal with them direct. Is it really important that you see the most popular musician at the best venue or is it more important that you heard some fun music with your friends? Make a decision and live with the decision
I have a hard time arguing for price controls for lattes. We aren't talking water or housing or basic staples of food here.