"but the whole wording is loaded - the grower is actually a co operative? Why should this be a problem?"
I'm pretty sure he was expressing surprise that the fact that this Co-op was not embraced by the Fair Trade Movement. I don't believe he personally has any issue with Co-ops.
""The fools who buy this coffee" - again , its is not written to me, I feel, it is written to make Mises readers feel smug in rejecting my values. This would be called ' trolling ' if it appeared on LJ."
I'm sure it is a bit of trolling, but he was not writing a news article, he was writing an opinion piece and the thought that went behind calling you a "fool" is that he is equating Fair Trade with Charity Theater, something that soothes your conscious but is really more of a marketing gimmick than anything else and doesn't really help the poor in any meaningful way
"If a company started selling a few lines in a few countries, and was able to go from a small operation to becoming a mainstream supplier of several more lines of merchandise over a period odf time, Mises would no dobt call it a success story. Why he is so bitter and cynical about the whole FT movement propts me to ask why? is it the fact that i'm hurting his market share, i wonder? You tell me."
He told you straight in that article, in fact he even asks a variation on that very question itself.
He opposes it because he sees it as form of newspeak. To the overwhelming majority of economists, not even just those from the Austrian School all trade is by definition fair, as long as no force or fraud is present. Basically his view, true or false, is that this is little more than a marketing gimmick designed to get you to pay a higher price, most of which ends up in the pockets of the Supermarket chain and the pockets of the fair trade organizations and not in the hands of the farmers by appealing to your guilt at being rich (or at living in a rich country) and your sense of "fairness".
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Date: 18/7/11 17:56 (UTC)I'm pretty sure he was expressing surprise that the fact that this Co-op was not embraced by the Fair Trade Movement. I don't believe he personally has any issue with Co-ops.
""The fools who buy this coffee" - again , its is not written to me, I feel, it is written to make Mises readers feel smug in rejecting my values. This would be called ' trolling ' if it appeared on LJ."
I'm sure it is a bit of trolling, but he was not writing a news article, he was writing an opinion piece and the thought that went behind calling you a "fool" is that he is equating Fair Trade with Charity Theater, something that soothes your conscious but is really more of a marketing gimmick than anything else and doesn't really help the poor in any meaningful way
"If a company started selling a few lines in a few countries, and was able to go from a small operation to becoming a mainstream supplier of several more lines of merchandise over a period odf time, Mises would no dobt call it a success story. Why he is so bitter and cynical about the whole FT movement propts me to ask why? is it the fact that i'm hurting his market share, i wonder? You tell me."
He told you straight in that article, in fact he even asks a variation on that very question itself.
He opposes it because he sees it as form of newspeak. To the overwhelming majority of economists, not even just those from the Austrian School all trade is by definition fair, as long as no force or fraud is present. Basically his view, true or false, is that this is little more than a marketing gimmick designed to get you to pay a higher price, most of which ends up in the pockets of the Supermarket chain and the pockets of the fair trade organizations and not in the hands of the farmers by appealing to your guilt at being rich (or at living in a rich country) and your sense of "fairness".