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Comment by lovich | Hacker News Reader

Why should anyone not be unhappy that their favorite cocktail is harder to find?

The article tried to paint the monks in a favorable light for limiting their production for environmental reasons but the phrasing rings hollow to me. They didn’t stop all production, or release the recipe to the world. They merely limited their output which, much like many companies with monopoly power are currently finding, allows them to have a higher price per unit, while no one can come in and compete in their market.

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The original comment did not come across as bitter-sweet as it should be. It came across as entitled, sort of disgruntled by the fact that the monks keep the secret to themselves and the drink can not be industrialized and produced to such an extent that they can enjoy their favorite drinks wherever they please and of course, at a reasonable cost!

Their attitude is akin to how people complain and demand stuff from open source projects and why authors are annoyed when supporting such projects.

It reminds me of "The Menu" movie, the producers got fed up with the consumers and they took drastic actions. Wasn't a big fan of the movie but I can see how creators would go to such extremes or at least fantasize about them.

The flip side of that is it does cost some money to run a monastery, and there aren't a lot of a modern opportunities for them to make money. Nothing wrong with them keeping their trade secret, and not being interested in scaling production.

Managing lots of production is more work and work of a different character than managing small production. They are happier managing small production. It’s odd to fault them for that.

Do you work every hour you possibly could? Would it be reasonable for someone to complain that you owe them more work because they would really like it if you worked more?

I think there’s a middle ground here. It’s very understandable that the monks don’t want to ramp up production. But being monks they also don’t need to acquiesce to the logic of the global market where their product will inevitably become the sole province of the rich. For a contrast see the Westvleteren Trappists who have taken significant efforts to prevent a Pappy van Winkle situation.

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