Starbucks Campaign

This weekend I got to celebrate my father-in-law's 75th birthday. Joe, AKA Mister Toaster a fixture among the toaster collecting community and frequent ebayer. A friend of his even posted a birthday auction to commemorate the occasion. I frequently get into political debates with my brothers-in-law just for yuks. Daniel will take any position he feels might be contrary to yours and Michael is a neo-anarchist. Mike has a view of Starbucks that I wanted to understand, mostly that Starbucks is evil. Mike's main complaints are the Starbucks kills indies, which is a common view of all chains, and that they exploit the poorest third world citizens in their unrelenting quest to overthrow the universe.

Mike... the Dr. Evil thing was a JOKE!

I did however look into the Fair Trade Coffee movement and found the Global Exchange : Starbucks Campaign which is interesting reading and well worth a look.

As a periodic Starbucks customer, I can get behind this action and do my part to help steer Starbucks in the right direction. Corporate entities need to be reminded of their ethical responsibilities from time to time and I can go for this.

I have heard way too much knee-jerk BS about why one company or another is evil or wrong without any form of supporting data or arguement. They are evil because they are.

Myself and many others heve worked to get Mike to think things through and finde supporting tada before spewing off, and I find that he is much more interesting to debate with because of those efforts. I'll defend though not take a position just to ensure that he has reasoned it through.

Daniel, on the other hand, has still neglected to connect his mouth with his brain on most issues. He has given some forethought to issues that are close to his heart, but overall needs more verbal challenges to his rants before he can come the rest of the way.

In a battle of wits, ammunition is as important and a good weapon. Daniel is well armed, he just needs to fill his clip before charging in.