Let them drink coke!

Over the weekend I was talking with an economist friend about the Commerce Commission's decision not to investigate the price of the milk.

He's a hell of a nice guy - generous, philanthropic, concerned - yet, when it comes to the price of milk, well that's another matter: the Commerce Commission made its decision within a certain framework - there are two supermarket chains, therefore there is competition in the market. It's expensive to make milk - it has to be transported and kept cold, there's spillage and spoilage.

I ended up, in exasperation and somewhat rudely, crying - 'Let them drink coke!' Because that's what a lot of kids are doing. Coke's way cheaper.

Nothing made me sadder when my boy was a wee tacker to be walking though Coastlands Mall in Paraparaumu and to see his peers sucking on on those green plastic bottles of super-sugared soft drinks.Those little teeth - rotted, those little bones - ditto, those little brains - ditto.

Luckily it does seem as though the government is going take another look at the price of milk from a viewpoint outside of the economic-determinist/free-market box (it must be election year!)

And watching video of the riots in the UK, I couldn't help wondering if 'Let them drink Coke!' isn't just as relevant today as that line about cake was in those earlier days of huge inequality.