When was the last time you had a coffee? When was the last time it was from Starbucks? I had one yesterday, and it was pretty good. Starbucks in general is pretty good. I’ve probably averaged a drink a week for the last couple years, and I know people who think that’s little. and besides serving up those delicious seasonal beverages, they also make sure that you they’re fair trade and environmentally conscious. Oh and CEO Howard Schultz is pro marriage equality. Starbucks can do no wrong, can’t they?

Wrong. Very wrong. And I’m very sorry classmates, but I am trying to make you feel the slightest bit guilty about your pumpkin spice lattes (I love them too).

Working at Starbucks seems to be a fairly good gig, doesn’t it? They preach good wages, good insurance, good hours, and good working conditions. However, defining “good” doesn’t appear to be up to the employees. According to the Organic Consumers Association, Starbucks has poorer insurance policies than Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart. They are also anti-Union, with spotty hours and availability commitments that inhibit many employees from seeking additional employment. And if $6.25 sounds like a livable wage to you, I’d like to live where you live. That’s not so peachy now, is it?

Now to take a little trip from the Starbucks around the corner to the coffee plantations in Ethiopia, one of the largest sources of Starbucks’ beans. Fair Trade as a business practice is meant to adequately pay farmers and producers of a number foods and goods from around the world, coffee being one of them. If you’ve walked into a Starbucks, you’ve seen how often they insert “fair trade” into their store landscape. They even sell Ethos water which is supposedly to fund construction of wells and water resources to those in need. The latte you just bought? The farmer who harvested those beans is getting pennies for it. The water you got to help build a well? Ethos the business gets over 90% of those profits. 

Now I could go on, but the links provided shed light on these issues better than I. The point is that despite how delicious and accessible Starbucks is, it’s globally damaging. As a company it is incredibly wasteful, unethical in practice, and a horizontally integrating monopolizer. Back home in San Francisco, there was a local chain of French-inspired cafe/eateries called La Boulange. The food was incredible and the fact it was the business of a local San Franciscan family made it even cooler. Starbucks bought them for $100 million dollars this year.

But now, if you’re still reading, how does such an omnipotent corporation like Starbucks get to where it’s at with little so little flack from the young people that buy all their paninis and macchiatos? They know how to frame themselves. They sweep these worker violations under their “Fair Trade,” “ethical” rugs, and we as consumers are content to believe that as face value. Teenagers can be passive. I would know. I’ve known Starbucks was unethical since 2011 and yet you could catch me walking to class with one of those infamous white and green cups; it’s hard to consider how my morning pick me up is depriving a both barista and a farmer of appropriate compensation.

Please do not be passive. The last time you went into Starbucks, or even the next time, consider who your fellow consumers are. How many people lined up are your age? Don’t be afraid of being invisible or irrelevant or unimportant. Starbucks is destructive, and you empower them. How does Starbucks keep growing? We keep spending our money. The same goes for any corporation: we gave ourselves to them. This is all very dramatic, I know, but so few young people realize the reality of their agency. Lead by example, and people will follow.

I disagree with Starbucks’ business practices, so I have stopped supporting them. I’m not going to be offended if you keep drinking their coffee. This post is to shed a little light on the unsaid, on the accepted, and how we can change that. Why start tomorrow what you could do today, or not do, in the case of buying a Starbucks. Do your research, empower yourself.