Modern Woes
Lifted from the comments, some beverage-related economics news:
This is like the entire left versus right debate on markets pic.twitter.com/5PlEn1uWS5
— wanye (@xwanyex) April 29, 2026
What things actually cost is “incredibly rightwing,” apparently.
As Rafi says in reply,
The inability to grasp how things work is quite remarkable. There’s an air of imperviousness. And it does, I think, capture something of broader attitudes. Certainly, I’ve had several not dissimilar conversations.
I’m now poking at the implication that the All Powerful State should have an army of po-faced minions patrolling the nation’s coffee shops, correcting the price of oat milk and other disgusting boutique substances. Regardless of the actual cost to the owner of the coffee shop.
And so, not comprehending fairly obvious things, despite being adults, Our Betters invoke conspiracies and call for a kind of ludicrous tyranny.
By the way, Mr Cohen – the chap upset at having to pay a few extra cents for oat milk in his coffee – is an assistant professor of sociology at Berkeley. He has pronouns in his bio.
He teaches those less knowledgeable and worldly than himself.
Oh, and being an assistant professor of sociology, a statusful intellectual, Mr Cohen has, at the time of writing, not seen fit to respond to any of the numerous comments pointing out his error.
Including polite and informative replies from owners of coffee shops.
“Oat milk tastes good”
Computer says no.
I once – entirely by accident – consumed soy milk sweetened with apple juice.
Still wake up screaming.
It’s not unlike venturing into a British supermarket and complaining, heatedly and at length, that nectarines tend to cost more in February than in August. As if the pricing couldn’t possibly be related to the practicalities of providing nectarines in February – sourcing from halfway around the planet, shipping costs, tariffs, lower yields, the logistics of supply and demand, etc.
It’s an odd thing to get all pissy about. As if this somehow validated a weirdly socialist worldview.
He could just google why oat milk is more expensive than cow’s milk.