The Atlantic: Amanda Mull- 'The Rise of Coffee Shaming': About Damn Time!

Source:The Atlantic- "Buying Coffee Won't Make You Poor." Tell that to people who are drowning in debt.

"Suze Orman wants young people to stop “peeing” away millions of dollars on coffee. Last month, the personal-finance celebrity ignited a controversy on social media when a video she starred in for CNBC targeted a familiar villain: kids these days and their silly $5 lattes. Because brewing coffee at home is less expensive, Orman argued, purchasing it elsewhere is tantamount to flushing money away, which makes it a worthy symbol of Millennials’ squandered resources."

Read Amanda Mull's piece at The Atlantic

"Today Shelby Church & I are trying LA's most Instagrammed coffee shops! We're stopping by Alfred Coffee, Blue Bottle, Philz, Carrera Cafe + more. We'll be giving you all the info you need to know about the cafes you see on social media & whether or not they're worth the expensive price tags."

Source:Morgan Yates- Saving the rest of us from having to drink a lot of coffee. LOL

From Morgan Yates

I'm a big believer in freedom of choice as a Liberal and we see ourselves as the freedom of choice or pro-choice blog, but just as long as I or no one else has to pay for someone else's choices. If someone else wants to piss their money away on coffee or anything else, that's their choice. Just so long as no innocent person is getting hurt from someone else's personal choices. Personal freedom, is just too damn expensive without personal responsibility.

So if Millennial's or anyone else wants to spend 5-10 bucks on cup of coffee every time they buy coffee, when they could make their own damn coffee at home which is just as good as the coffee as they're buying, that's their damn problem, but not mine or anyone else's.

If they want to take the attitude: "Even though I know I'm drowning in student debt and I can't work enough to support myself and perhaps even work jobs that I know way too qualified to work, but I have to take this job, because I can't get the good job that I'm trained for, but being seen in coffee houses and buying and drinking coffee house coffee and being seen walking down the street or sitting outside at a cafe with my coffee staring at my phone is a price that I have to pay to be cool in America, then so be it." ( And perhaps they would use more colorful language than that )

Which gets to my point about coffee houses in America: it's not the coffee, stupid! Or at least not the flavor of the coffee and the quality of the coffee that's the issue here. Coffee house cups and coffee house coffee are like jewelry or t-shirts that have social message on them, or smartphones: they're status symbols that the so in-crowd in America believes that they have to have and be seen with in public in order to be cool and popular in America.

It's not the side of the brain that tells us what we like and don't like that's driving so many hipsters ( and wannabe hipsters ) in America to the nearest and coolest coffee house, but the part of the brain that wants us to be cool and popular.

So I'm glad that Suze Orman and others are at least pointing out the financial costs for young people who decide to spend so much of their own money on coffee house coffee in America. Money that could be spent for half as much at home by these hipsters who could simply just make their own coffee that's just as good, for half as much as they spend at their favorite coffee house.

And if they want to continue pissing their money away which is money that they probably can't afford to piss away, that's their damn business. Just as long as I and everyone else doesn't have to pay for their personal decisions. 

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