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.