When Did Cappuccino Become a Necessity?

A bunch of people are disturbed by Blaine Harden's Javanomics 101. Almost everyone, including Harden, seems to be missing the point, although Harden comes close:

Financial planners, best-selling investment gurus and a number of advice columnists have been warning consumers for years that seemingly insignificant daily spending on such luxuries as gourmet coffee can, over time, sabotage savings and hobble a person's financial future.

The thing is, it's not just luxuries. Spending too much on anything is a dumb way to manage one's finances. Only Head of Royal Intelligence seems to get the point.

I'm fond of cappuccino myself, but I almost never buy it at home in the US--it's just too expensive. I bring my own coffee, which is far from cappuccino. Given the reaction of these various bloggers to the article, it looks like I'm pretty eccentric, but I think they're pretty foolish to let themselves get hooked this way.