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Coffee, avocados, and oil aren't illegal. But I'm pretty sure if you banned coffee it would spawn criminal gangs that made 1920s prohibition look tame. There's

Coffee, avocados, and oil aren't illegal. But I'm pretty sure if you banned coffee it would spawn criminal gangs that made 1920s prohibition look tame. There's no substitute for the margins you can get in the illegal drug trade. Take away the primary source of funding and you make it much easier to break the gangs. We've already gone through this. Just legalize it already.

whatever1 1y ago
They could set a 1000% tax on the coffee produced, if they can consolidate control. Latin America is 50% of the world coffee production. What will Starbucks / Nestle do? They will just pay up. They can even go against the families of the execs to make their case about the new price.
- torbid 1y ago
  They tried this before with fruit. The US companies just sold their interest in production and have plenty of other options for acquisition if they try to tax beyond the relative ease of South America verse anywhere else in the global south. I would agree that letting black market bs continue will eventually lead to groups that could threaten global control on random other commodities but that's no reason kick the can further down this road.
- arijun 1y ago
  Part of the reason such a large percentage of coffee is grown there is because it's cheap. The cartels can (and do) make profit on legitimate crops, but they can't magically rewrite the rules of capitalism.
  - techjamie 1y ago
    Coffee beans are notoriously picky about their environment. But with modern technology, it wouldn't surprise me if large companies would resort to growing it in artificial greenhouses, or putting more stock in breeding plants that can be grown elsewhere.
- hiccuphippo 1y ago
  > What will Starbucks / Nestle do? Finance wars. Like with the "Ten Cents War": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific
- potato3732842 1y ago
  >They could set a 1000% tax on the coffee produced. No they couldn't. That'd just mint another cartel run black market that they don't control and that cartel would tax the black market coffee at substantially less. You can kind of think of the current drugs situation as a "so big the number doesn't matter, it's a non stater" percent tax.
  - whatever1 1y ago
    That new cartel would invite a war against it. These disputes are not resolved through capitalistic means. You cannot just price out the big guys.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      How is that any different than the current situation where the current cartel is fighting with the government?
clvx 1y ago
They already extortion every single producer. Any coffee and avocado coming from South America has an extortion tax somewhere in the supply chain whether it’s to the farmers, shipping companies, distribution center warehouses at port or whatever you imagine. The extortion comes as placing gang members as part of security, real threats or just bribes to unlock to keep moving towards the consumer. Illegal goods have better margins but extortions provide a platform for power and money with less effort.
bjourne 1y ago
Wasn't that same argument used for legalizing cannabis? How did that work out?

whatever1 1y ago

They could set a 1000% tax on the coffee produced, if they can consolidate control. Latin America is 50% of the world coffee production. What will Starbucks / Nestle do? They will just pay up. They can even go against the families of the execs to make their case about the new price.

torbid 1y ago
They tried this before with fruit. The US companies just sold their interest in production and have plenty of other options for acquisition if they try to tax beyond the relative ease of South America verse anywhere else in the global south. I would agree that letting black market bs continue will eventually lead to groups that could threaten global control on random other commodities but that's no reason kick the can further down this road.
arijun 1y ago
Part of the reason such a large percentage of coffee is grown there is because it's cheap. The cartels can (and do) make profit on legitimate crops, but they can't magically rewrite the rules of capitalism.
- techjamie 1y ago
  Coffee beans are notoriously picky about their environment. But with modern technology, it wouldn't surprise me if large companies would resort to growing it in artificial greenhouses, or putting more stock in breeding plants that can be grown elsewhere.
hiccuphippo 1y ago
> What will Starbucks / Nestle do? Finance wars. Like with the "Ten Cents War": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific
potato3732842 1y ago
>They could set a 1000% tax on the coffee produced. No they couldn't. That'd just mint another cartel run black market that they don't control and that cartel would tax the black market coffee at substantially less. You can kind of think of the current drugs situation as a "so big the number doesn't matter, it's a non stater" percent tax.
- whatever1 1y ago
  That new cartel would invite a war against it. These disputes are not resolved through capitalistic means. You cannot just price out the big guys.
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    How is that any different than the current situation where the current cartel is fighting with the government?

clvx 1y ago

They already extortion every single producer. Any coffee and avocado coming from South America has an extortion tax somewhere in the supply chain whether it’s to the farmers, shipping companies, distribution center warehouses at port or whatever you imagine. The extortion comes as placing gang members as part of security, real threats or just bribes to unlock to keep moving towards the consumer. Illegal goods have better margins but extortions provide a platform for power and money with less effort.

bjourne 1y ago

Wasn't that same argument used for legalizing cannabis? How did that work out?