Here’s the deal: when we pay more for better stuff the folks that produce it get more, too. To make something better takes more work, care and experience. This is true of coffee but it’s also true of wine, chocolate, beer, good food and even cars. Better stuff costs more because people have no reason to produce better stuff if they don’t get paid more to do it. Paying premium wages is the most efficient and effective way to involve, motivate & align everyone whose work touches the product they help to produce.
I first noticed this as part of completing a requirement for my Bachelor of Science degree (with an emphasis in Public Health). I was surveying the general levels of health in various coffee-producing communities in Guatemala. I found that the areas that produced better quality coffee had generally better levels of health and more access to healthcare. I believed then, and still do, that the two were connected. People can’t value their own work, or care about doing a good job if they don’t first have their health — it’s pretty basic.
So here’s the ironic and weird part — folks who treat themselves to a fancy & expensive meal (for example) are often accused of being selfish and self-indulgent to spend that money on themselves, to get something better by paying more. They are told they would be more responsible by spending less at expensive restaurants and perhaps either saving that money or giving it to charity. But if everyone did that the world would be a lot less fun (if you like good food) and a big chunk of our economy would also collapse.
Think about where that money goes when you spend money at a fine restaurant. You might support a chef that’s doing very well (right now) but it’s likely that he or she put a lot of years and hard work into their career. In the meantime you also support sous chefs and waiters and a manger or two that are making a lot more than they could at McDonald’s, Jack-in-the-box or Taco Bell. You also support a long list of specialty purveyors, many of them local to you, that are producing high-end produce and meats, poultry and game from local farms and ranches. You may have parted ways with a significant amount of money but you’ve also perhaps had a wonderful meal that might encourage you to try some local suppliers or a new cooking technique, or you might be inspired to look at food and your own nutrition in a new and healthier way. All of this does more to keep more money in your community and multiplies local prosperity. Even if you can’t go to a particularly fine restaurant, just the fact that the people who can afford to go there do, works as a sort of progressive tax — they pay premiums to dine there, but those premiums go into the local economy and help make everyone a little more prosperous.
Now consider what happens and who benefits and what you support when you buy a meal at a fast food restaurant. First of all, it’s well established that while fast food can satisfy cravings, it’s not balanced nutrition or a healthy choice for a daily meal. In fact a diet of all fast food might even kill you (that fellow, Morgan Spurlock, who produced the documentary, “Super Size Me!” got very sick eating nothing but fast food in extra large portions). The people who work at fast food restaurants are not paid well, either. Finally, a significant amount of the money you spend goes to a management super-structure and shareholder dividends — all of that apparatus working to get you to pay as much as possible for as little as possible, as often as possible. They do this with lots of advertising, marketing and by working with the substances which our bodies instinctually crave but that are not necessarily good for us: salt, sugar and fat.
(This is not to say that all fast food is bad or that it isn’t tasty, or convenient, or less expensive than many other options, or that it isn’t capable of satisfying a craving. Fast food, for many people, is a great option, once in a while… and we all have our favorites.)
It’s not simple, and there are exceptions, but you can do a lot of good by caring about the quality of the stuff with which you surround yourself and consume. Even if it’s just one thing that you won’t skimp on, or maybe you can only afford one thing in your life that is of exceptional quality. But by taking the trouble and making the sacrifice to include the enjoyment of that one special thing (maybe it’s coffee, for example) it demonstrates that you care about yourself and that you care about the folks that produce that thing (coffee?) that you take the trouble to enjoy.
There are a lot of certificates that aim to guarantee that the things we consume are wholesome and good, some of them also aim to assure the consumer that the people involved in the production of that product are fairly compensated. But there is another certification that is often overlooked and it is the one that each of us can verify within ourselves without a logo, paper or badge. We can just ask ourselves if what we are drinking or eating, or perhaps using or viewing, is good — if it is one of the best things we have eaten, drunk, or otherwise used or consumed. If so, there’s a good chance that someone was paid extra to produce it.
This is not to cast any aspersion upon certifications, but to point out that we all come equipped with an additional means of verifying the quality and genuine character of a product and that is ourselves, our own selves, if we pay attention to our perceptions and to what we enjoy and appreciate.
While seeking out the better quality stuff is often referred to as self-indulgent, I believe it is virtuous and that the assertion that we are self-indulgent to want better things in our lives is a myth. Better quality is something we should value, not degrade, and by doing so, we not only improve our own lives, if only by a little bit, we give others the opportunity to do so as well.
Consider what the economic terrain would look like if we all valued the work of others, and the quality of what we consume, and the enjoyment that we derive from really good stuff, just a little bit more. Yes, we might end up paying more for the things we really take pleasure in, but we’d also have the opportunity to produce things of better quality, at a higher price, for others.
To me, that sounds virtuous, and for me, it has always begun with a cup of coffee.
