[Leica] Re: starbucks

[mlpowell at sbcglobal.net (Matthew Powell)]

On Apr 18, 2004, at 3:32 PM, allan yates wrote:
> 1.  If your employer is exploiting you, there is a remedy:  QUIT.  
> Find another
>      Find another job, or start your own business.

In the Bush-era economy, "find[ing] another job" is easier said than 
done. But you're giving free reign to employers to exploit and do as 
they please, placing the entire onus of responsibility on the employed. 
Not to mention engaging in the "capitalism is completely voluntary" 
fallacy. "Be exploited or starve"  is no choice, simply coercion of 
another name.

> 2.  In my area, we have three Starbucks.  None of the small, locally 
> owned
>      coffee houses have gone down the tubes as a result.  This may not 
> be the      case everywhere, but the fact remains that some perservere 
> regardless.
And when we have no laws against murder or theft, "some perservere 
regardless." Non-argument.

  Starbucks is hardly Wal-Mart - no one would ever accuse Starbucks of 
intentionally cutting prices to hurt competition at $4+ a cup - but it 
does have a negative impact on small businesses, mom and pop coffee 
shops.

> 3.  Ah!  Ridicule from the alleged enlightened and intellectually 
> superior -
>      what a surprise.
Enlightened and superior? Nah, those concepts don't fit my worldview.

Though I do, quite honestly, struggle against considering myself the 
intellectual superior of anyone who claims that Americans liberals and 
progressives are simply commies straight from the Marxist Heart of 
Darkness and proceeds to paint entire ideologies across the political 
spectrum as wannabe autocrats and evil, etc..

MP