Leave That Coke Alone, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said that the United States was less friendly to businesses than China. According to him, the conditions in the world’s largest Communist country are preferable to those here. Specifically, he cites their tax policy.
Let him move there.
For most of my life, I’ve had an addiction to Coca-Cola – specifically to Diet Coke (and, before that, Tab). A few years ago, I managed to wean myself to flavored seltzers, so I’m not getting the caffeine fix. I use the word “addiction” deliberately, because nothing would satisfy my thirst (or whatever word accurately describes that need) except that one specific product. Forget Diet Pepsi. Too minty. Seven-Up, Sprite, Dr. Pepper – nothing else hit the spot.
It’s not surprising that I was hooked. Caffeine is highly addictive (just ask me on a day when I missed my morning cup of coffee). Cocaine, formerly an ingredient in Coke, is also addictive, and it makes sense that, when the law required them to change the formula, they’d look for something that worked the same way. And sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup, also delivers a buzz.
So when a man who makes his living peddling an addictive substance, one that serves no nutritional purpose, tells me he’s happier in China, I’m not surprised. China has a totalitarian government, and whatever passes for a department of consumer affairs in their country lacks the teeth of ours. Because of these more pro-business standards, they’ve killed people, including children and people with teeth. They’ve even killed our pets. These are those anti-business regulations that conservatives are so quick to oppose.
Maybe the taxes are lower in China. You get what you pay for.
At the moment, I’m not so excited about using my tax dollars to support Coca Cola. As Elizabeth Warren so eloquently put it, my tax dollars pay for the roads that allow Mr. Kant to deliver his addictive substances to stores. My schools taught his drivers how to read traffic signs and follow a map (and, probably, how to drive). The public airwaves allow him to pimp out his product to the largest possible audience.
Can you imagine if a progressive person said something like, “Europe provides a much more supportive environment for labor?” Or even if he said something about a Republican candidate to a spouse that may or may not have been a private joke? You’d see letters in the newspaper for years, demanding the person leave.
I’d say let’s start a boycott, but I don’t use any Coke products anymore. Minute Maid is crap. New York City tap water is superior to any of their brands (and paid for with my tax dollars). If you consume any of these products, I beg you to reconsider.
Media Goddess Martha Thomases wanted to use Allan Sherman’s “Seltzer Boy” for the title of this column, but decided it was too obscure.
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October 1st, 2011 at 9:23 am
“Let him move there.”
THAT belongs on a t-shirt.
October 1st, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Martha, when I was hanging in parts of the world not named US, Coca Cola was used for all sorts of things–cleaning auto battery terminals, flushing clogged plumbing lines, rust removal–all sorts of helpful household chores. Some even used it to mix with alcohol…
October 1st, 2011 at 4:32 pm
America, love it or leave it…boy, the left has just totally morphed into the right. Or at least the cartoon version of the right.
Actually I’ve seen many many many progressive stalk about how Europe “provides a much more supportive environment for labor”. Longer vacations, shorter work weeks, better child care, better health care…whether all of those claims are true is beside the point. I never felt the need to boycott their products or buy them a one way ticket but that’s just me.
And whatever you do, don’t read Thomas L. Friedman at the NY Times. The man is constantly throwing up China as some kind of thing we should aspire to. http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/24/thomas-l-friedman-wants-us-to
I’d love to work in something about Coca Cola being translated as “Bite The Wax Tadpole” in mandarin but that story is apparently untrue, damn it.
On the larger point though, you are correct. I/m not impressed that they make the trains run on time when their human rights record and general dread of anything approaching freedom of thought are so horrible. Try telling that to the nitwits who still have posters of Mao on their walls.
October 1st, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Bill, you miss my point: when the left suggests that some aspects of life might be better in other parts of the world, their patriotism is questioned. When a fat cat does the same thing, he’s a shrewd businessman and Washington should pay attention. Double standard much?
I stpped listening to Friedman when he started beating the drum for the war in Iraq. Fir at least six years, he has been predicting that war would be o er in six months. I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about.
China can have the drug dealer.
October 1st, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Presently totally addicted to Diet Coke >>>>..,……….
October 1st, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Bill, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone declare that the Chinese made “the trains run on time.” I’ve only heard (and read) that little statement made in connection with Mussolini (and, on occasion, to Hitler but I don’t think that train travel in Germany was ever as bad as it allegedly was in pre-Mussolini Italy; but I digress….).
And, as for a dread of “freedom of thought,” you describe the hosts of FoxNews to a tee. (And I do seem to recall a few mentions of “traitor” and “treason” when progressives had the audacity to question the Bush Administration’s “war” efforts.)
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:29 am
I sure remember progressives claiming they were being called traitors and treasonous when Bush was in office and they were justifiably outraged by it, because really, what could be lower than accusing someone of being unAmerican over simple disagreements in policy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW3a704cZlc–Olbermann Calls Obama A Sellout & Republicans Treasonous
http://www.mackinac.org/7163 senate candidate accuses republican rival of “economic treason”
http://www.mackinac.org/7163– Dem governor accuses state senator of being “treasonous to the state of Michigan.”
Nancy Pelosi, during the health care debate, wrote and editorial for USA Today calling the protesters against the bill “un-american”
http://allnurses-central.com/world-news-current/pima-county-democrats-535516.html– Pima County Democrats want split from ‘un-American’ part of Arizona
http://www.examiner.com/democrat-in-national/tea-party-treason-republican-rubes-ruin-economy– Tea Party treason: Republican rubes ruin economy
etc, etc, etc…you can find a gazillion examples from both sides of this foolishness. Sometimes you can even find the same people who wail about it when it’s done to them turning around and doing it to someone else.
The only double standard seems to be that when an idiot conservative engages in this kind of rhetoric the left gets all pruney about the lips but when they do it it’s suddenly okey dokey.
Martha, if you think it’s wrong for the left to have its patriotism questioned why do the same when someone you perceive as being on the other side says something you disagree with? Just disagree! Leave the “well why don’t you go live there” rhetoric for those who have nothing else to say. If Mr. Kent is wrong about his analysis then show how he is wrong.
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:45 am
Bills argument is a straw man. Make up what you say your opponent’s position is and then argue that. Lots easier than responding to what’s on the page.
Have fun. Better yet, have a coke and a smile.
And, Nan, “presently” means “soon.” You mean “currently.”
Ask a writer.
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:47 am
And, re Mao: Top five murderers, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:05 am
If I have mis-characterized or misunderstood what was said, please explain. I have no problem admitting I’m wrong but it helps if there’s an actual point to consider.
Do you really think Pol Pot killed more people than Mao? I mean, I’m sure he would have if he could have but Cambodia just didn’t have as many throats to cut. I suppose it depends on whether you include the Great Leap Forward as mass homicide or just mass manslaughter. There comes a point where, when tens of million are starving because reality does not conform to your idiotic political beliefs, you have to take responsibility.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:55 am
Bill, see my previous comment on how you mischaracterized my argument.
October 2nd, 2011 at 9:33 am
But I thought I did address that. It just isn’t true that the right can suggest that we could learn from other countries and not risk having someone question their patriotism. In fact it’s hard to take ANY point of view without having that trope trotted out. The only way it will stop is if decent intelligent people–and you are both, in spades–refuse to play that mug’s game.
October 2nd, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Mr. Kent isn’t breaking new ground with his business plans just his public commentary. GM (owned by us Americans) has been in China for years and continues to pump Billion$ into plant, manpower and intellectual research in that country. Bill Clinton granted China ‘Most Favored Nation’ trading status to make it easier for their government to destroy the Garment Industry in NY and much of our manufacturing across the country (helped to build that $30 Billon Clinton Foundation outside of all U.S. regulartory bodies too)and this is what happened to America’s vanishing middle class, not any tax scheme. But! Perhaps Mr. Kent is a secret agent and is unleashing his vile product on the unsuspecting Chinese? I hope his plot doesn’t engulf them too quickly, we need to borrow a couple Trillion more dollars by next fiscal year!
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:30 am
Highly larious to see these guys defend the Communist tyrants. Don’t know about patriotism, but it sure is ignorance. GM does it so it’s okay? Yeah, right. I’m sure you’d be happy to transfer there with your families.
And where is W’s foundation located? Or his dad’s? Must be too modest, those Texans.
The northeast garment jobs went to right-to-starve states of the holy Confederacy generations ago. Those jobs were not middle class, either.
I didn’t attempt to rank my top five murderers. And I stand by murder.
And judging by this conversation the Coke guy is just another water carrier for the “anything to stop Obama party.” All this nonsense is quite familiar to a long time Democrat. We commies, we stupid, we sending jobs away. Har de har har har.
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:46 am
Well I never drink any soda unless it has bourbon in it. If I’m going to put something that bad in my body, there has to be a better pay off than sugar to make it worth it.
License fees, that are determined by the size of the vehicle, are directed toward road maintenance/construction. So despite Ms. Warren’s eloquence, trucking companies pay for roads to a degree commensurate with their usage. Taxes on gasoline are also directed to road maintenance, so the more you use roads, the more you pay for them. Airwaves, while ostensibly belonging to the public are not available for free. So while business can avail themselves of the airwaves, they pay someone for air time who pays a license fee to the government. Certainly as a candidate for Senate, Ms. Warren should understand how public works are paid for.
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:53 am
Roads cost far more than the money collected for tolls and licenses. The airwaves, like the Internet, were created by the government, so the debt is owed to the taxpayers. And then there are the schools, the police, the bridges, the firefighters, the parks, the courts, the libraries – all those things that make living here better than living in China.
I can’t believe I have to defend the American way of life as exceptional to right-wingers.
October 3rd, 2011 at 7:24 am
The licence fees and gas taxes long ago lost the race with the need for maintenance of our transportation infrastructure. Try to raise them and you’re up against big oil. Good luck.
Don’t believe me? Go drive somewhere.
“Ostensibly” belong to the public? Interesting theory there. Who do they belong to? Jeebus?
Broadcast license fees are a pittance, licenses all divvied up long ago and comfortably in the hands of the richest of the rich, who more than once have been quoted that a broadcasting license is a “license to print money.”
October 3rd, 2011 at 10:57 am
“It kind of sucks,” says [Mario] Batali. “But it’s America, and when America sucks, at the end of the day, it’s still gonna be good.”
A guy who actually built some businesses and didn’t have it handed to him by a board of directors. The sucky bit is how he’s being sued by employees over a wage/tip dispute. Case to be adjudicated in fair, American courts, not some Chinese commissar.
October 3rd, 2011 at 11:55 am
“I can’t believe I have to defend the American way of life as exceptional to right-wingers.”
I can’t believe it either! Where are you doing that, I’ll be right there by your side!
Because I looked all over this page and I must have missed where anyone, right or left, argued against the American way of life as being exceptional. Even if one accepts the “dubious” assumption that China is better for business than America, it does not follow that our entire way of life is second rate compared to the Chicoms. There is a lot more to our way of life than tax rates.
October 3rd, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Actually, I didn’t mean to put dubious in quotation marks. If I were a millionaire business men I would be very very careful about investing in China. It could go terribly south, terribly quickly and you might not see it coming. It’s not like they have a free press to keep the corruption in line and report the bad news that might alert you to finding solutions before the problem gets too bad.
October 3rd, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I wonder what barriers to business Coke encounters? Pollution regulations? Anti-monopoly restrictions? Dare I point out that China (gov’t. and bus.)is in the business of stealing secrets. Anyone for Chinese made Coke syrup?
Chinese people seem to love our cigarettes. Might Chinese tobacco be the next American business domino?
October 3rd, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Johnny T, I think maybe you missed my ironic smirk. Anybody who does business in or with China (or Russia, Iran, etc.) does so with the likelyhood that if they are successful their biz will be nationalized or their patents ignored and replicated. Since the mid 1990s, the U.S. government has been the biggest supporter of Chinese destruction of the American way. GM should have been allowed to go through their filed Bankruptcy and have the courts decide who gets what and then let someone develope a better plan. Instead, just like AIG, and the Banks, our Government intruded and picked winners. Now Government Motors expands into China because it is cheaper.
As for the Bushes? Yes, they are scumb and have sequestered their $$ in Southeast Asia as well. However, they did not destroy all those wonderful laws we learned about in grade school that were created in the wake of the Great Depression. 1998 is a dark year in American History.
BTW, I registered as a Dem when we were first allowed to vote (Thank You Richard Nixon!)and have never been stimulated to change. I have grown to hate both parties and try merely to fight for issues when I feel so inclined.
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:57 pm
This is timely:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7885de20-edab-11e0-a9a9-00144feab49a.html#axzz1Zm2MwPvT