Of late, many quite popular opinions have struck me as exceedingly odd. For example, I just came across a pamphlet by Thomas Fenton entitled "Coffee—the Rules of the Game and You" (The Christophers, 1972). The gist of this plea, made in the name of religious concern, is a rehash of trade figures designed to prove that Latin America, as well as the rest of the world, is being "exploited" by prevailing levels of consumption in the developed world, as well as by "unfair" modes of international production and exchange. In effect, the supposition is that our simple pleasures—such as a morning cup of coffee—are tools for gouging some poor peasant in El Salvador or Brazil. Somehow, the argument seems to go, if I were only willing to pay just a few cents more for my coffee and my country were willing to "let" the South Americans build their own merchant fleet, the peasant would stop starving and his country would develop rapidly.