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No mention of Folgers was made. Good coffee doesn't cost anywhere near $10/cup for those who know about coffee pricing. It doesn't cost the farmer anywhere near that to grow a crop, harvest the beans, and have the beans processed. Bulk shipping isn't that much, either. Roasting isn't that costly, either. It's just that the industry wants customers to think it all costs that much. They usually make Folgers/Taster's Choice/Maxwell House quips to show how unsophisticated people's palates are. I wasn't referring to Folgers at all. There are plenty of places out there selling good coffee at decent prices. And there are plenty of pretentious places out there trying to convince people to pay a lot more for something that, in effect, doesn't cost much more to produce.
Now, leave Folgers et al out of the equation. They don't enter into it at all. We're talking good-quality, freshly roasted coffee here. It's about the presentation and pretentiousness of two things that are almost identical--one just has an elitist spin to raise the price.
The ironic thing is that most farmers and most writers are pretty down-to-earth people. They usually want to make a decent living and do what they love, unlike many professions I can think of. It's the importers, roasters and coffee shops that want to turn coffee into something pretentious. Likewise, it's the agents and publishers that want to create a similar effect in the publishing industry. Why is that, do you think? Because they, not the farmer or the writer, benefit directly from the snobbery associated with the sophistication of high pricing. They benefit financially from calling it "art" and ridiculing those who don't want to pay exorbitant prices. If they can create a sense of sophistication, it's easier to manipulate the readers.
Like I said, disgusting human nature. And it works on the gullible.
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