>Prep, brewing, and cleanup amounts can work up to around $3-4 of opportunity cost for a tech professional.
I disagree. The average tech professional is salaried, not billing hourly. It takes about the same amount of time to fill and plug in the percolator or operate a kurig as it does to stand in line and get coffee made for you. Likewise the opportunity cost is nearly $0 There is no economic rationalization for the overwhelming majority of prepared coffee bought by white collar professionals. It is a pure luxury expense.
Salaried vs hourly doesn't matter that much when looking at opportunity costs. Most salaried folks stick to a fixed set of working hours.
> It is a pure luxury expense.
Practically speaking, purchasing coffee at all is a luxury line item. There's no actual need for it for anything other than the caffeine hit and flavor. At least with a Latte, there's the protein, calcium and calories from the milk.
>Most salaried folks stick to a fixed set of working hours.
We also browse internet, spend ungodly amount of time on fb/insta/whatsapp/HN/reddit while at work. Taking out 5 mins to make a coffee isn't that significant.
If we stick with our "tech worker", in that month they have likely earned in excess of $12,000. Even at $200, that's around 2% of the exemplar employee's earnings.
If $200 is a significant amount that you don't want to spend, that's completely fine. But it's also not that much when you look at it, even as a leisure purchase.
Lol, not every tech worker works in SF/NYC. I work in Toronto, make more than what an average family in Canada makes, and still am no where close to $12,000/month before tax, forget about after tax.
> Practically speaking, purchasing coffee at all is a luxury line item. There's no actual need for it for anything other than the caffeine hit and flavor.
True, but that's a very deep rabbit hole. We could sit here all day debating what's luxury and what's not.
My counterargument would be that if with automation the way it is, if a regular person can't afford a self-made cup of coffee (or an equivalently cheap luxury) for the flavor alone, then what's the point? Should we all be eating vegan bean paste and popping B12 supplements and caffeine pills instead of consuming nutrients through regular food?
The argument is not that luxuries shouldn't be purchased (they should). In the parent's comment, they put down a latte as a luxury item while upholding their brewed coffee as a better purchase. This was simply an effort to rebut that statement.
I think it’s the delivery method and cost that makes it a luxury, not necessarily the product. A fish bought at the grocery store for $5, cooked at home and served in your kitchen is just food. That exact same fish served in a sit-down restaurant for $35 is a luxury.
I disagree. The average tech professional is salaried, not billing hourly. It takes about the same amount of time to fill and plug in the percolator or operate a kurig as it does to stand in line and get coffee made for you. Likewise the opportunity cost is nearly $0 There is no economic rationalization for the overwhelming majority of prepared coffee bought by white collar professionals. It is a pure luxury expense.