After all, the historical long-term average returns of individual equities provide individuals with the only capital appreciation vehicle that has significantly outpaced inflation. But many people simply do not believe that they have the money to invest. It is certainly true that there are people in the U.S. in such dire poverty that they use every penny of generated income just to maintain themselves. Still, everyone invests. Any time a person breaks out his wallet to spend money he is investing.
Some investments provide absolutely abominable returns on invested capital.
That was investing. You decided that there was no better use for that dollar, more or less, than a Coke. There is nothing wrong with this. You will get no monetary return, as there is no secondary market for used sodas. You more than likely overpaid for that beverage, certainly in comparison to, say, water.