Why Boycott Starbucks?

 

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, in opposition to Donald Trump’s recent executive action regarding banning immigrants from certain countries for a few months, has decided to hire 10,000 refugees at Starbucks locations all across the globe. So according to this article, Trump’s supporters took to social media to ramp up a boycott against Starbucks because of the CEO’s stance even though it has also been stated that Starbucks pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses by 2018.

People are boycotting Starbucks (SBUX) again, and this time it has nothing to do with its cups.

On Sunday, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz disclosed that the coffee giant would be hiring 10,000 refugees worldwide over the next five years, a direct response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring immigrants — including refugees — from seven countries from entering the U.S.

Now, let’s take a look at something. The average pay of a barista at Starbucks is between $7.63 and $10.63 per hour, and shift managers earn an average of $9.12 to $13.44 which still leaves the employee in poverty since it has been established that a person needs to make $48,788 a year to cover standard costs of living expenses and if I was to take an average of what a Starbucks shift manager earns which would be around $11.00 an hour, that employee would make $21,120 a year, well below what’s needed to live on. So, how is Starbucks doing any favors for veterans and their spouses or even immigrants since they will need social programs to live on and need to make use of food banks to supplement their Starbucks earnings because their take-home pay will not be $21,120 since taxes and other payroll deductions will come out of their pay? How is the CEO of Starbucks in any position to attempt to take the high road at all since this is also known by the Starbucks CEO? How is he even attempting to take the high road against Donald Trump by announcing his plan to hire 10,000 immigrants and pay them poverty wages while the CEO of Starbucks makes $9,200 an hour which makes him one of the biggest hypocrites to even attempt to take the high road?

Where is his concern for those who enable his sorry ass to rake in $9,200 an hour while Starbucks shift managers start out earning $9.12 an hour and the starting salary for a barista is only $7.63 to $10.63 an hour? Why was there never a call to boycott Starbucks in protest over the paltry wages paid to those who work there?  Or better yet, to make a noise over the pay of its CEO in comparison to that of the average Starbucks employee? Why not stand in solidarity with those who, once they finish their shift at Starbucks,  must then head out the door, change clothes and go to their second job; that’s the only way they’ll be able to afford more than a box underneath a bridge because I hear tell that boxes underneath bridges are at a premium these days. We will never make a difference because the only way to make a difference is to boycott every single business in every single country and turn our cities into communities where we help each other. But that will never catch on because we only boycott when something makes us mad and for only five minutes. What’s that going to do? Not a damn thing. So, no one is worried about your Starbucks boycott, especially not the one you’re hoping will be worried; its billionaire CEO, Howard Schultz.

Isn’t it nice when billionaires decide to take a stand to help the helpless? Isn’t it just wonderful to see one billionaire pit his empathy and selflessness against another? I mean, on the one hand, we have Donald Trump calling for a ban on immigrants from certain countries because ‘average’ Americans need to be kept safe from refugees who were made so by the very fact of this country shit stirring in theirs; bombing the hell out of their country and on the other hand, we have another billionaire who steps in and saves the day for the ‘average’ immigrant by throwing poverty wages at them if they can indeed, get past Donald Trump’s immigration ban. How this circus of horrors will play out is anyone’s guess. But we can be sure that things will only go from bad to worse at this point with billionaires telling us what’s best for us. When has a billionaire ever done anything but what was best for the billionaire? Both are bloated windbags with more money than brains and who have been using their silver spoons to sip from their bowls of wealth and privilege and who never knew what it actually meant to earn one honest dollar in their lives.

We have 10,000 veterans and spouses of veterans about to start earning poverty wages, and by the way, this must be how billionaires ‘thank them for their service’ and soon to be joining them in about three months time will be 10,000 immigrants and with both the House and the Senate hell bent on cutting social programs, we wonder why more and more homeless tent cities are popping up and why food banks are stretched to their limits and are running out of food? Ha! Keep wondering. Meanwhile, being the ever so helpful person that I am, I did a bit of research and found the cheapest apartment in America. It is located in Cleveland, OH and it’s only $350 a month. Sweet ain’t it? If you don’t mind living in Cleveland, then you’re all set. No need to thank me, that’s what I do, help the helpless and can you believe it, I’m not even a billionaire. I’m just a thoughtful, empathetic person who does indeed know what it feels like to live like a refugee in ones own supposed, ‘country’. I am one who has seen much suffering of those who are not deemed ‘refugees’ but who also live like refugees in their country of birth.

We don’t even take care of the least of us who were born in this country but we want to add to the burden of a system that is already bulging at the seams to the point where its ready to burst and deflate and what with these hypocritical Christian charities over here taking donations left and right and doing nothing that amounts to charity work, we need more people who have empathy and selflessness because we are the only ones who will attempt to step up to the plate when billionaires and Christian hypocrites add to our problems instead of resolving them.

I don’t need to boycott Starbucks because I have never stepped foot inside one. Of course it could be because caffeine disagrees with me but it also could mean that I loathe the very name ‘Starbucks’ because everyone is running through the doors of Starbucks as though it is the first and last name in coffee. We’re talking coffee folks, something that just should not be that important. If you were running through the doors of say, ‘Habitat for Humanity’ seeking to help build some poor person a much needed home, then I’d say, “Way ta go!” But that’s not what’s happening.  When was the last time you ran inside the doors of a homeless shelter because it was bandied about as being the most hip spot to go into and get your ‘help the poor’ fix? When was the last time you ran inside the door of a food bank or food shelf to help out because it was the most hip spot to go into and get your ‘help the hungry’ fix? When others hype up a place like a ridiculously named coffee joint to the point where that’s the only name you hear, I do just the opposite and that is exactly what I do, head in the opposite direction.

So, Cleveland it is then, eh?