Fair-Trade Coffee Smackdown

We won't buy coffee where doing so would help really poor farmers; instead we buy it from others who are better off. Oliver has quite a put-down of Oxfam's position:

The conclusion couldn't be clearer: meddlesome NGOs are institutionally compelled to seek increasing ... subsidy from all sources, resulting in a compulsion to emotionally blackmail Western liberal audiences into misguided attempts at socially just buying. That this should have to be brought to the attention of - much less explained to - a large international organisation with considerable clout is indicative of how sentimental appeals can overcome even the most rigorous logic.

The entire post is fun, but [warning] it is X-rated.