Exit > Voice.

More adventures in Starbucks decaf... This morning, I'm running about 75 minutes later than usual and wasn't leaving from home. Mobile order placed. I arrive to see one grande cup on the mobile shelf... but it's for someone else not me. Where's my decaf?

Barista apologises and said their decaf carafe pump thing wasn't working, but that they would brew me fresh. Indeed they did, as I got it right out of the spigot, and it was excellent.

She hands me the cup and also hands me a $4 gift card by way of apology.

1. I wasn't upset or anything, but still excellent service recovery and just good business right there.

2. Can you imagine the DMV giving you $10 off your registration because they took longer than expected? Or the USPS giving you free stamps because your delivery was late?

Once again, EXIT > VOICE. Competition gives you the ability to exit, and that ensures consumer-oriented behavior by sellers. It's not about the people or "bureaucracy." It's about the set of economic institutions within which exchange takes place. With a new Dunkin Donuts opening up not too far away, I expect that Starbucks will continue to have to keep up its game.

And again, if you want to talk about power and domination, who is really the boss here? Who has power over whom? And compare the power dynamic with me and Starbucks to me and the DMV or USPS. The latter is what you'll get with everything from single-payer health care up to full-fledged socialism, democratic or otherwise. State-supported monopolies mean the denial of exit and a transfer of power to the supplier. It means more domination over the masses by the few, not less.

Liberalism at its most radical has always stood in opposition to privilege, and that means opposing monopoly in all of its forms, no matter how good the intentions of those who support it.