I grew up in a non-coffee drinking household. I discovered coffee in college. I found it helped me stay up an hour or two extra when studying for a test the next day. A cup cost maybe 25 cents and your choices were black, with cream, with sugar (yuck), or both cream and sugar.

Now people go into a coffee shop and they have literally hundreds of choices. Cappuccino, latte, espresso and others with a choice of size and dozens of flavorings. People love the freedom of choice and they are willing to acknowledge that value by paying $5.00 instead of 25 cents for their morning pick-me-up.

Freedom is a good thing. Free markets are quite effective at facilitating people’s passion for freedom of choice.