3 ms·

Coffee is a non-essential luxury? It's amusing to see an infographic about surviving minimum wage trending on a venture capital forum. We're all ramen profitabl

by jart 6y ago

Coffee is a non-essential luxury? It's amusing to see an infographic about surviving minimum wage trending on a venture capital forum. We're all ramen profitable and scrappy at heart. But what most americans waste in a year on non-essentials folks in the san francisco would call rent.

ben_w 6y ago
> Coffee is a non-essential luxury? Technically it is, though for most people the values involved are not an important issue even if they spend $10/day on fancy ones or the equivalent per year on owning and maintaining a fancy machine (and few people will do either). But yes, as with all optimisation, the main focus should be on the single biggest cost, which in SF is housing: when I briefly considered a career move to SF, the rent was so out of proportion to the rest of the world that “learn to fly and commute by Cessna from Davis” looked relatively sane.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > even if they spend $10/day on fancy ones or the equivalent per year on owning and maintaining a fancy machine (and few people will do either). Assuming the machine's lifespan is 5 years (and that's a very short time for an espresso machine) you are looking at 18K over 5 years at 10$/day. That's high traffic commercial espresso machine (La Marzocco) territory.
  - ben_w 6y ago
    I’m aware; I chose this as a deliberately extreme example of why coffee expenses aren’t worth optimising.
  - onecommentman 6y ago
    Given the salvage value of the espresso machine after five years, you are in personal shared valet territory. (It’s Uber, but for baristas!)
Dunedan 6y ago
> Coffee is a non-essential luxury? The graphic doesn't state coffee as non-essential luxury, but spending $1,000/year on (buying) coffee. I find it pretty incredible how much money people spend nowadays on buying coffee, instead of brewing coffee themselves, like past generations did.

by jart 6y ago

ben_w 6y ago

> Coffee is a non-essential luxury? Technically it is, though for most people the values involved are not an important issue even if they spend $10/day on fancy ones or the equivalent per year on owning and maintaining a fancy machine (and few people will do either). But yes, as with all optimisation, the main focus should be on the single biggest cost, which in SF is housing: when I briefly considered a career move to SF, the rent was so out of proportion to the rest of the world that “learn to fly and commute by Cessna from Davis” looked relatively sane.

908B64B197 6y ago
> even if they spend $10/day on fancy ones or the equivalent per year on owning and maintaining a fancy machine (and few people will do either). Assuming the machine's lifespan is 5 years (and that's a very short time for an espresso machine) you are looking at 18K over 5 years at 10$/day. That's high traffic commercial espresso machine (La Marzocco) territory.
- ben_w 6y ago
  I’m aware; I chose this as a deliberately extreme example of why coffee expenses aren’t worth optimising.
- onecommentman 6y ago
  Given the salvage value of the espresso machine after five years, you are in personal shared valet territory. (It’s Uber, but for baristas!)

Dunedan 6y ago

> Coffee is a non-essential luxury? The graphic doesn't state coffee as non-essential luxury, but spending $1,000/year on (buying) coffee. I find it pretty incredible how much money people spend nowadays on buying coffee, instead of brewing coffee themselves, like past generations did.