This morning I happened to be clearing out the one spam comment that managed to sneak by the spam blocker and landed on this April 25, 2006 post, which was another cell phone vulgarian story that unfolded in my local 7-11. In the comments, the subject of coffee came up, and I had mentioned that the price of a 20-ounce cup of coffee was $1.33.

Shortly after I had written the post, the price went up to $1.44. This past Thursday, the price went up to $1.55. WTF? That’s a 16.5% increase in ten months. I got to thinking, “Holy crap, increasing prices like that, who do these people think are? The State of New Jersey?”

I then realized that if they were the State of New Jersey, here’s the way the prices would go for a 20-ounce cup of coffee:

The “Rich” would pay $14.95 per cup. (Note: In Jersey, you can be “rich” and still worry about how you’re going to pay for the brake job.)

Most people would pay $4.95 per cup, but they would get a twenty-five cent per cup rebate at the end of the year – maybe.

Other people who never bought coffee would be paid to drink the stuff in the form of a “coffee rebate”. It’s only fair.

Pay up! It’s for the kommon good, komrads.