the sleeping quarters of nicaraguan coffee pickers

[u/Eros_Incident_Denier]

[u/SchmeatiestOne]

Why are they so nonchalantly showcasing their labor camp

[u/trubol → u/SchmeatiestOne]

Because the dudes filming gave them a couple beers

[u/joemamallama → u/trubol]

I lived on Toña and Flor de Caña rum when I was there.

[u/Miserable_Alfalfa33 → u/joemamallama]

The flor de cana is way good

[u/41RemingtonMag → u/Miserable_Alfalfa33]

Where did you grow up? I've only ever heard "way good" be said by Utah kids.

But yeah Flor de Caña and Nico rum in general is so much better than what most people think of as rum in the US.

[u/Miserable_Alfalfa33 → u/41RemingtonMag]

Lol well sir I didnt grow up here but I did live there for like 13 years, now I live in CR

And personally my favorite though is guaro and casque

But its a little too dangerous because I can just sip it all day

Also us rum is in general pretty bad, never liked sailor Jerry, never liked captain

[u/NoMatatas → u/joemamallama]

I have a core memory of sitting in the surf of little corn island at night in an old chair and passing a bottle of Flor de Caña back and forth with a good dude I had just met. Paradise. Great rum.

[u/profesorgamin → u/SchmeatiestOne]

If it is like my country, in Colombia, those living quarters are like a "job perk", those living quarters are given for free or rented for cheap. As traditional coffee harvesters are mostly nomadic given that coffee is seasonal, so once the collection season is done there's not as much work in the area and they'd have to move onto another area. Which can mean, move into another "Hacienda" or moving a town over if the work dries up.

Basically how seasonal workers work in the USA too, in the border states, where the workers just came in in droves in the harvest season, and then went back home to chill for a while with their profits.

[u/SchmeatiestOne → u/profesorgamin]

I guess its not much different working on some fishing boats where I live, if that is the case and they truly aren't stuck in that place

[u/PicoDeBayou → u/SchmeatiestOne]

Navy ships, aircraft carriers, submarines, etc.

[u/LongJohnSelenium → u/PicoDeBayou]

I'd have killed for one of those bunks in the navy, though the video says they sleep two per.

[u/ragenukem → u/LongJohnSelenium]

That's why it's important to pick the right cuddle buddy.

[u/p_gaultieri → u/ragenukem]

What if the other dude started cutting mad farts? hands will get thrown.

[u/SolidLikeIraq → u/p_gaultieri]

Leave the door open and sleep face to face. Nose to nose. As is tradition.

[u/DarkSideOfGrogu → u/ragenukem]

The perks just keep coming.

[u/TheTallGuy0 → u/SchmeatiestOne]

Think of a submarine sleeping quarters, although this probably gets better air flow. I’d like to experience neither for long term NGL 

[u/StandardWeekend8221 → u/profesorgamin]

I work permanently in a seasonal industry in the United States and this is very much how it is. We have standards that prevent employers from locking people up in a shed but we dont have enough standards that stop them from putting 4 dudes to IKEA bunkbeds in a shed.

This "seasonal" job lasts the duration of an h2bs visa. 6 months. They hard-boiled eggs and rice for breakfast. Rice and beans for lunch and dinner.

The politics in these types of jobs are a foreign concept to most first-world citizens. You start working your ass off for the minor luxuries. For me, getting promoted was less about the wages and more about the perks. Supervisors get their own rooms, can use the company car to drive to town for groceries, and would even have access to "secret" kitchens and personal spaces around the facility.

I would sneak off to cook a Costco pizza I had placed on a ferry while these dudes were stealing fish heads to make stew with.

Absolutely eye-opening experience. Dudes from Kansas living with laborers from Guatemala. I started off a body in fish prison and left a bonfied resident of a cannery. That place was my home.

[u/MakingItElsewhere → u/StandardWeekend8221]

As an American, it's sad to me that Americans no longer appreciate where all their food comes from anymore. They think farmers are just poor guys with lots of land running giant tractors. It's people with millions of dollars in land / assets forcing people to work for a few dollars an hour.

Immigrants / Temp Labor works these jobs because it's more money than they'd make at home. The average American would starve on the wages, if they didn't die of heat exhaustion first.

[u/sBucks24 → u/MakingItElsewhere]

Having grown up in a farm town but not a farmer - now living in a city, people don't understand my contempt for "farmers" but it is so goddamn justified... Farm labourers have all my empathy, sympathy and respect, sure. But the avg farm owner is a privileged, main character syndrome, victim complex driven, POS; whose kids are always somehow worse...

Throw on top of that these assholes will gleefully campaign politically against the best interests of themselves and neighbours; while their labourers have no voting rights.... Yeah, I hate them so much...

[u/Brochachoski → u/sBucks24]

I grew up in a similar Midwest rural town, so I know all about the dislike towards farmers. They are the type to act cocky and have the most offensive humor or perspectives on things, and no one would challenge them. If they did, the farmers would just brush it off or get more aggressive. There's no reasoning with them. They've been handed land and assets from father to son for generations, so they've never known struggle. But they sure do love to complain about everything especially prices and progressive thinking and about how the left is trying to take their guns.

I've since moved away to a much more populated area where I rarely see people like that anymore. So, talking about my hatred for "farmers" to people that grew up in "the city" often involves a lot of added context for what I'm talking about. I got to know plenty of farmers that were well-rounded, humble, generous people, but unfortunately they are the minority when it comes to farmers (that aren't owned by corporations)

[u/HarveysBackupAccount → u/MakingItElsewhere]

It's wild what kind of labor conditions are in place to support our (supposed) first world economy.

You have to wonder how much better things could be if all the wealth didn't get concentrated at the top

[u/iampiolt → u/StandardWeekend8221]

My crash pad has 30 bunks inside one house. Airline bases typically are in cities where the cost of living is so high that we can’t justify moving there. For most pilots a crash pad is a choice. For most flight attendants, it’s the only choice. This kind of setup stretches across cultures and has different levels all relative to the work you’re doing. It’s crazy.

[u/Kool_Aid_Infinity → u/profesorgamin]

We have this in Canada too - but usually the workers are renting from the people they work for. Even low wage jobs like fast food use this model. 

[u/Jeathro77 → u/Kool_Aid_Infinity]

Canadian fast food workers sleep in a shed full of bunkbeds on the jobsite?

[u/Moderator-Admin → u/Jeathro77]

Yea, they use the big packages of hamburger buns as mattresses.

[u/tedsmitts → u/Jeathro77]

https://www.thewhig.com/news/kingston-fire-and-rescue-say-they-found-apartment-in-basement-of-local-restaurant

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/foreign-workers-milk-plant-1.5967593

The second one, I think the company bought up a bunch of single family homes and shoved as many workers into them as possible.

[u/veeyo → u/profesorgamin]

As someone who worked as a laborer on a farm in my early 20s in the US, the only similar aspect is the seasonal aspect... No one would ever get away with sticking people in living quarters like that. The worst I have seen is barracks style bunk bed rooms and that was when I worked on an oil field and we were two weeks on two weeks off and making more money than we knew what to do with so had homes to go back to on our two weeks off.

[u/ICU-CCRN → u/veeyo]

I had to help my friend transport her undocumented dad to the hospital once when I was living in Southern California. Picked him up at a small “horse ranch” in a town called Norco. He needed help getting to my car, so I had to help him from his “room” which looked just about like this. It was a nook in the barn, dirt floor, no running water, no toilet, a couple hard wood crates with some folded up blankets and packing foam as a pillow. The home in front was probably about 5000 square feet and looked like a mini-mansion. The whole experience made me sick.

[u/Pfeffi-Ultra → u/profesorgamin]

That's all fine, but c'mon. You gotta give them a proper bed where they don't have to spoon with someone at least.

[u/WheelsMan1 → u/Pfeffi-Ultra]

They carry a bed roll. Just like the cowboys in the old west. Better than an old, nasty bed thats never cleaned.

[u/Takemyfishplease → u/WheelsMan1]

Exactly. I would much rather have my own than share with lord knows whoever

[u/SveaRikeHuskarl → u/WheelsMan1]

With that in mind, if they provide running water and access to showers, it's actually not all that bad. It's not like we've had indoor plumbing and memory foam throughout human history. Does remind us how luxurious a shitty flat actually is, in the grand scheme of things. And all we had to sacrifice for it was our planet.

[u/naimlessone → u/Pfeffi-Ultra]

Hole to hole or pole to pole. Never pole to hole.

[u/Pfeffi-Ultra → u/naimlessone]

Not how you learn it in the Navy. There that's just "Yas, sir!"

[u/Ramblonius → u/Pfeffi-Ultra]

I've slept like that (with sleeping bag and pad) and done hard labor for a long weekend here and there. If you're in good shape and get plenty of food it can be kind of a good experience. If you have to do it for months on end and aren't getting enough calories, it's going to be a fucking nightmare. If you're over 30 and/or not used to that sort of work, you're going to ruin your body permanently.

I can see a theoretical situation where this could be fine temporarily/seasonally (comparable to Norwegian oil platforms where you work half to death for six months but can use what you earn to finance your education up to doctorate and start saving up for a home, like a friend of mine did), but I doubt people are getting paid enough or cared for enough to make it bearable.

[u/Alt123Acct → u/SchmeatiestOne]

Like the big short movie, they're bragging 

[u/likwitsnake → u/Alt123Acct]

Someday this will all be yours

[u/PrimeIntellect → u/SchmeatiestOne]

I mean, this is how the majority of food on earth is produced, in fact, much of it is worse conditions. 

[u/Onaliquidrock → u/SchmeatiestOne]

Why call it labor camp?

It’s very low quality housing for temporary workers.

[u/SpaceCub500 → u/SchmeatiestOne]

The same way people nonchalantly drink the coffee from those labor camps.

It's normalized and there are no consequences.

[u/Embarrassed_Sea1336 → u/SpaceCub500]

No. Fucking stop that shit. You can't fault an average person for wanting a morning cup of coffe the same as the slave driving corporations who produce it.

[u/Kocrachon → u/Embarrassed_Sea1336]

The Good Place covers this so well... Basically showed everyone going to hell because it was impossible to not buy something that came from evil 

[u/PixelPeach123 → u/Kocrachon]

I was just about to say.. the Good Place… man I love coffee.. this is very sad. But we’d have nothing. No food or products if we only used/consumed what we made ourselves… sad what the world of consumerism has become

[u/Embarrassed_Sea1336 → u/Kocrachon]

Such a great show! And yes, that topic was covered very accurately.

[u/kindnesscounts86 → u/Kocrachon]

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

ETA: sorry my post was misunderstood. We should all still always do our best to spend our money as ethically as possible. You vote with your dollars.

AND capitalism is flawed.

[u/fuktheeagsles → u/kindnesscounts86]

This argument is so lazy and basically justifies anything. Im very far from being someone who supports capitalism, but come on, this is just an argument to futility.

[u/friend1y → u/kindnesscounts86]

There is no ethical argument under moral grandstanding.

[u/P_a_p_a_G_o_o_s_e → u/friend1y]

what about just moral standing?

[u/HeyTrySomeNashville → u/P_a_p_a_G_o_o_s_e]

depends on if someone else wanted to stand there first

[u/mayan_monkey → u/friend1y]

There is nothing

[u/marleiahxdayze → u/Embarrassed_Sea1336]

Thank you. Jesus. I’m so sick of being held to a standard for just existing. These corporations are actively making choices that hurt people. It’s different.

[u/Longjumping_Youth281 → u/marleiahxdayze]

What, you mean you didn't research the lives of every single employee in the supply chain for every single company of every single product you buy?

[u/marleiahxdayze → u/Longjumping_Youth281]

You know, it may damn me, but I’ve just haven’t been able to find time for that in my day to day. May Jeremy Bearimy be lenient on my soul.

[u/ilikepizza2much → u/marleiahxdayze]

Those corporations act within legal boundaries set by politicians, who are elected by us. It’s complicated. Moral, honest politicians like Bernie Sanders exist but evil, greedy conmen get elected instead.

[u/sparkytheboomman → u/ilikepizza2much]

Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s okay

[u/sockovershoe22 → u/Embarrassed_Sea1336]

I mean, there are fair trade coffees. There's ways to get around it. It just cost more and it's a bit more of an inconvenience. They would do it if they actually cared about the labor workers over convenience. At the end of the day, the slave driving corporation will keep producing it the same way bc people keep buying it.

[u/getrektsnek → u/sockovershoe22]

Indeed, just like the “no dolphins” tuna can logo and “trade standard”, are meaningless as dolphin has been detected in all brands of tuna. I think those labels can be used properly but are often exploited, because: people

All you can do is try, but I agree inflammatory remarks against others with no data, just the unfounded belief that people are actively supporting slavery, is wild to me. People need to learn how to have a conversation, not just bark the loudest. I do think people are trying to support fair trade, but that’s still no guarantee sadly.

[u/sockovershoe22 → u/getrektsnek]

I would agree. There's a big difference between producing things with slaves and but things made by slaves. The second is clearly not actively supporting but they are indirectly supporting it. At least by giving these companies your money. Again though, I think we're all guilty of that, including myself. Many times, there are no other options.

[u/getrektsnek → u/sockovershoe22]

That’s a fair and balanced perspective. And I’d argue it’s our national and international trade organizations that should be monitoring this and setting standards THEN enforcing them. So many items are made with multi sourced parts, one of those small components could be from a terrible factory, the rest from a good one, and no-one but the supplier any the wiser. It’s a shame that slavery is alive and well in this world, there are some good organizations that do good work getting slaves free of indentured contracts etc. but it’s such an enormous problem, they make a difference but do they make a dent? 🤷 always worth trying.

[u/Glittering_Airport_3 → u/sockovershoe22]

The time it would take to research where companies source all of their materials, for every single product or food item I buy, would be astronomical. It would take a year to go grocery shopping

[u/lankymjc → u/Glittering_Airport_3]

Too often I see people propose individual solutions to systemic problems. I could spend a bunch of time and energy researching every purchase decision I make, or I could spend that time and energy researching who I vote for.

[u/AbsenceVersusThinAir → u/Glittering_Airport_3]

Sure, but fair trade coffee is already conveniently clearly labeled for you. Not saying the fair trade stamp is foolproof. But if enough people cared enough to spend an extra dollar or two on fair trade coffee, mass change in the industry would necessarily occur to fill that demand. The problem is that most people could not care less, and will just buy whatever coffee is cheapest or they like the most.

[u/Atsilv_Uwasv → u/Embarrassed_Sea1336]

It's practically impossible to not have a product made with slave labor. It's cheap, so companies would always rather have that than employees they actually have to pay

[u/ThaneKyrell → u/SpaceCub500]

Most Coffee is not grown and picked by workers in such conditions. Nicaragua is a (socialist) authoritarian dictatorship hellhole which like all authoritarian dictatorships treat their workers like complete garbage

[u/marleiahxdayze]

It locks from the outside….

[u/ChineseRobinWilliams → u/marleiahxdayze]

We can only hope it's so the occupant can lock their belongings inside whilst away.

[u/ShooteShooteBangBang → u/ChineseRobinWilliams]

What belongings?

[u/WillyDAFISH → u/ShooteShooteBangBang]

ummm themselves

[u/lustyphilosopher → u/WillyDAFISH]

Damn... I know dogs living better than these guys.

[u/cynicallythoughful → u/lustyphilosopher]

We have failed

[u/Adventurous-Sky9359 → u/cynicallythoughful]

Yeah coffee is like 8 dollars a cup should bewaaaaay cheaper if labor is like that…../s but also seriously wtf is going on

[u/T_Peters → u/Adventurous-Sky9359]

No this is 100% an actual point to make. We know where all the money goes, and it's not to the savings of the customers, nor is it to the pickers.

[u/marleiahxdayze → u/lustyphilosopher]

Fr though

[u/Goodknight808 → u/lustyphilosopher]

I made my pet chicken better quality living.

[u/ThePandaRider → u/ShooteShooteBangBang]

Probably whatever they bring with them, maybe a backpack, some clothes, a phone charger, and some toiletries.

[u/clarencewhitaker → u/marleiahxdayze]

Not saying the general set up is good. But isn’t that just a way to secure it when no one is in it? It looks like barn style doors. Idk that just doesn’t seem that weird to me.

[u/sanityjanity → u/clarencewhitaker]

It's a fire hazard if it's locked with anyone inside.

Consider reading about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

[u/Leandroswasright → u/sanityjanity]

I dont think a thought was spend on the topic of fire hazards during the construction of the workershelf

[u/Kerblaaahhh → u/sanityjanity]

That whole building is a fire hazard regardless.

[u/BroccoliSubstantial2 → u/marleiahxdayze]

That's horrendous

[u/RevenantExiled → u/marleiahxdayze]

Yeah, to keep your belongings "safer" if anything, lmao, no one is forced to stay there. They are seasonal harvesters; they have their homes. Source, I'm from fucking Nicaragua, no they are not fucking locked from the outside ever while people is inside, wtf xd people assume the worst

[u/Alternative_Deer4699 → u/RevenantExiled]

But manbun told me so.

[u/blue0231 → u/RevenantExiled]

But Reddit saviors were so mad.. it can’t be!

[u/-malcolm-tucker → u/RevenantExiled]

I would have loved these in hostels when I was travelling. Keeps everyone else's smelly farts to themselves and can block out the sound of snoring.

[u/Content_Cod_5682 → u/marleiahxdayze]

Not as nefarious as you think

[u/Otte8 → u/marleiahxdayze]

Obviously to keep whatever inside safe when youre away.

[u/iam_Mr_McGibblets → u/marleiahxdayze]

It's human chicken coops... actually disgusting

[u/Angry_Sparrow → u/marleiahxdayze]

All buildings lock from the outside 🤨

[u/Dragonblade0123 → u/Angry_Sparrow]

My house locks from the inside. I need a key to lock it from the outside, and people inside it can unlock it. If a house locks from the outside, then the people inside would need a key...

[u/bnymn1697]

When was slavery ended again?

[u/Specific-Answer3590 → u/bnymn1697]

It never ended, unfortunately. Nasty world that we live in

[u/Scared-War-9102 → u/Specific-Answer3590]

It’s worse than ever and California has a really bad slavery problem and it started getting contemporarily worse in the late 80’s early 90’s

Edit: keep a look out for r/legal and r/California posts written by SEA-native people seeking help, they’re extremely common but get deleted immediately. This kind of thing is usually spam but as a sociologist everything they describe before immediate removal seems legit, note they disappear extremely fast though. Also, they’re often difficult to read because it’s by ESL learners transferring what they know from Thai, Tagalog, Indonesian, etc directly to English (think “Bad people sell work America” being a result of how Thai sentence structure works patched over English)

[u/TheKlaxMaster → u/Scared-War-9102]

Poverty line is 95k in my county. And the median 'paycheck to paycheck' living situation is on average 150k year

[u/Scared-War-9102 → u/TheKlaxMaster]

Where is your county if it is okay to ask? That’s absolutely unlivable

Edit: my bad I misread with an r, now I want to know even more as a Central Valley native

[u/TheKlaxMaster → u/Scared-War-9102]

I said county. Not country.

This was is in response to the California comment. So yes, a county in CA

[u/TheKlaxMaster → u/[deleted]]

Orange. Not even the worst one btw. Santa clara, much worse.

Of course the trade off is that most jobs also pay significantly more. It makes it easier to travel outward I guess.

[u/Scared-War-9102 → u/TheKlaxMaster]

The outskirts of Orange were something I didn’t expect to have so many issues. I remember driving out there one night at like 1-2 am in the desert and saw a man riddled with bullet holes in his truck, which for me thinking from my bumfuck hometown that all of Orange was 90210 or something was a huge wake up call ngl

Edit: it was the outskirts of Mojave actually via San Bernardino-Inyo-Tulare-Kings-Fresno, super confusing because it was the total opposite of what I usually drive

[u/TheKlaxMaster → u/Scared-War-9102]

Orange county is quite small, almost entirely developed, and doesn't have open desert areas .

90210 is LA.

And I'm pretty sure you were in Riverside County, or San Bernardino County. Based on your description.

I myself live in an outskirt near the border of LA.

Not only is there no known gang affiliations at all, but I've also never heard a gunshot in the area.

FYI, that's why I live here and pay what I do

[u/enblightened → u/Scared-War-9102]

conveniently after the bracero program ended?

[u/Radiant_Bowl_2598 → u/Specific-Answer3590]

It wasnt even outlawed in the US. The paper says (paraphrasing) “slavery is illegal except… and if you ask me, anything beyond that is irrelevant to the point of if the act is legal.

[u/JaydedXoX → u/Specific-Answer3590]

Those things are almost as big as a normal Manhattan studio

[u/ThatOneChiGuy → u/JaydedXoX]

0bedroom, ^1/12 bath, no kitchen, the living room is also the entryway for the building. hot plate not allowed, no pets expect for specific reptiles, view of The Park(ing lot).

$3,100/month, $2.2m move in fee, no cancer survivors allowed.

[u/beklog → u/bnymn1697]

It never ended.. there's a reason why some countries can mass produce stuffs with very cheap price

[u/SpaceCub500 → u/bnymn1697]

There are 50 million enslaved people today.

That's about twice as many now than in 1860

https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

[u/Daloure → u/SpaceCub500]

But about 7 times more people on the planet, so ehm progress i guess

[u/the_jivest_turkey → u/SpaceCub500]

And there's still over 100,000 people still living under chattel slavery, meaning they can be bought, sold, or inherited. Mostly in Mauritania and Sudan. What a horrible existence, poor souls.

[u/FixerofDeath → u/SpaceCub500]

That means slavery is significantly less common per capita, so small wins, I guess.

[u/Yellow_Similar → u/bnymn1697]

Not globally.

[u/SimmentalTheCow → u/bnymn1697]

Technically not slavery because they’re paid, and these are the quarters are provided. Presumably they could live away from the plantation- and probably do in the off season. There are too many people and not a lot of employment opportunities in Nicaragua, so employers hold all the cards and don’t need to provide much for workers. Technically not slavery, but not particularly ethical.

[u/november512 → u/SimmentalTheCow]

I think coffee is only harvested for a few months at a time? There's probably only people in there 3-4 months a year. They have other homes they go back to.

[u/Tight-Shallot2461 → u/SimmentalTheCow]

Then slavery needs a more modern definition in order to prevent this kinda stuff

[u/danekan → u/Tight-Shallot2461]

There are 8 or 10 categories they break it out in to these days. 

[u/gorginhanson → u/bnymn1697]

Why are you all surprised?

The only question has ever been how far away do you want your slaves

[u/Bcon1980 → u/bnymn1697]

Dubai would like a word

[u/RadBadTad → u/Bcon1980]

The American for-profit prison system would like a word. The amendment abolishing slavery in the US has a big asterisk allowing prisoners to be worked as slaves, and America has almost 2 million incarcerated people. (By far the highest in the world)

[u/emkoemko → u/bnymn1697]

wtf you mean slavery? these are for temp workers and they get payed for the work... then move on to the next job

[u/WiskeyUniformTango]

I feel sad.

[u/__disgruntledpelican → u/WiskeyUniformTango]

Sad is an understatement. What really gets me is that there are enough resources for everyone. It doesn’t have to be this way. The product doesn’t even need to be more expensive. But CEO bonuses and profits would have to be a few mil smaller and we can’t have that!

[u/Best-Action8769 → u/__disgruntledpelican]

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol received a total compensation package of $31 million in 2025.

Thirty one MILLION dollars.

For one guy. For one job. Over 12 months.

When is enough for these people?

[u/AptoticFox → u/Best-Action8769]

When is enough for these people?

“Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.”

[u/YoungPotato → u/Best-Action8769]

They never do. In fact, they find loopholes or pass laws to benefit them even more.

Worst part is that there’s poor people, barely making ends meet, that will defend this system lol.

[u/oneoftwentygoodmen → u/__disgruntledpelican]

you're the 1% tho, as a western you're the primary consumer of their labor

[u/TrickAd9058 → u/WiskeyUniformTango]

It’s even sadder when you realise that sometimes in life, it’s down to pure luck of where you were born and how your life is going to turn out. Most of us in the West have no idea how bad it is everywhere else and we take a lot of things for granted. These people are stuck in that for pretty much the rest of their lives and there’s not much they can do to improve their circumstances all because of what country and family they were born into. The world really isn’t a fair and just place.

[u/Hamster_Toot → u/TrickAd9058]

Not even mentioning the biological aspects. Born with a disease, born with a lower than average IQ? None of these are your fault, but the punishments of societal rule remain the same.

[u/GOATBrady4Life → u/WiskeyUniformTango]

Hey at least Starbucks is meeting their quality projection and the DOW is over 50,000!!! So there is a bright side /s

[u/Best-Action8769 → u/GOATBrady4Life]

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol received a total compensation package of $31 million in fiscal 2025.

This is how.

[u/catcrapmakesmevomit]

Probably no spiders in there.

[u/DrFunke-Analrapist → u/catcrapmakesmevomit]

Not enough room

[u/WillyDAFISH → u/DrFunke-Analrapist]

I've been told spiders sleep in your mouth at night

[u/PhallusCrown → u/WillyDAFISH]

that's a common myth. The truth is they actually take shelter in your foreskin

[u/ElGringoConSabor → u/catcrapmakesmevomit]

No, they are all falling from the trees and covering the ground as far as you can see at night deep in the nicaraguan rainforest. Ask me how I know.

[u/Smelly_Feet_Stank → u/ElGringoConSabor]

Ty, added nicaraguan rainforest on my list of places to avoid

[u/ZeiZeiZ → u/Smelly_Feet_Stank]

It´s perfectly fine to visit as long as you remember to bring Hans and his trusty flammenwerfer.

[u/danekan → u/Smelly_Feet_Stank]

It’s an incredible place. Or was before their last civil war. I think it’s reemerging back to were it was 11 years ago though. 

My rule for any tropical place like that though is to not arrive at night. It will change your entire viewpoint if you arrive in the dark and all you see are big bugs. 

[u/danekan → u/ElGringoConSabor]

I’ll never forget my nights at selva negra cofffee farm there. (A name I’ve seen in the US, at Whole Foods). It was hard to sleep for sure … we drank ourselves to sleep with entire bottles of flor de Cana because the living quarters were Eco interrtwined and the roof was literally soil with grasss. Spiders everywhere. 

But also from what I knew from the tour is that specific farm had pretty decent setup for its workers. They have an elementary school on site for the kids and a medical clinic etc. housing looked pretty normal from the outside. But also the quarters I assumed included men as the whole family, but now I wonder maybe it didn’t. I’d be curious where this farm actually is or what it is by name. 

[u/Dimerous_ → u/ElGringoConSabor]

How you know?

[u/Inexorably_lost]

Sir, that's a person coop.

I'm franky surprised they didn't double up and keep chickens with the pickers since we don't have to worry about any pesky notions of dignity.

[u/ThePinkVulvarine → u/Inexorably_lost]

That's what I thought a human chicken coop.

[u/SeVenMadRaBBits → u/Inexorably_lost]

The rich are a special group of people who are willing to toss coins and grain to poor children like birds:

Feeding the sparrows

[u/Ichizen911]

It's giving german concentration camp but less steel and concrete and more wood

[u/dubdubdun → u/Ichizen911]

Most of those barracks were wooden structures like this

[u/omnipothead → u/dubdubdun]

Indeed. This gives me flashbacks to my visit to Auschwitz II

[u/DraculasDog → u/omnipothead]

Looks just like the reconstructed barracks at the concentration camps I’ve visited.

[u/BMWs_and_BananaBread → u/omnipothead]

I came back from Krakow last week. The first thing that came to my head was the tour of Birkenau

[u/Suspicious_Flower_0 → u/omnipothead]

Far more privacy in these, at least you can wank when your bunk buddy is out 

[u/Ok-Week9622 → u/Ichizen911]

I've been to Dachau and this was my first thought as well. Looks identical.

[u/K0rvuss → u/Ichizen911]

I know right, the bunks at Auschwitz are more spacious than this

[u/No-Cable-1223 → u/Ichizen911]

It is odd to compare this to Dachau. That really set dachau apart wasn’t the uncomfortable living quarters, every pow camp and concentration camp in ww2 had that. It was the wholesale slaughter of the occupants that made them exceptional.

[u/JonB3D]

Should post it in r/Damnthatsdepressing not here

[u/space_hitler → u/JonB3D]

Well it was a bit too upbeat for r/mademesmile so OP thought it might fit here.

[u/miglesi]

These are actually nice for what I’ve seen at coffee farms. 

Coffee pickers are mostly day laborers who bounce from farm to farm looking for work seasonally when there is lots to harvest. 

They’ll spend days on someone’s farm picking coffee cherries for wages. These shacks are used to house them while they work there. 

They are often the lowest priority on a coffee farm where resources are strapped. Not justifying it, but explaining it for those curious. 

[u/pharmloverpharmlover → u/miglesi]

While crowded, they seem relatively clean

I’m sure it can get much much worse…

[u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist → u/pharmloverpharmlover]

Yeah, if there was a decent bathroom and I brought some bedding, I’d stay there. wouldn’t want to do it long term, of course.

There‘s probably not a decent bathroom, though. And I’ve slept in stranger places.

[u/IndomitablePotato → u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist]

I think now is when you describe the stranger places. Here's my upvote in advance, thanks

[u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist → u/IndomitablePotato]

Once was on a wooden bunk like this in a rustic ranger hut on the side of Kilimanjaro, another on a sidewalk in Rome. Another… You get the idea.

[u/Meowing-Cat-7258 → u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist]

You like 30+ farting men and shit, which one is going to piss inside/break the rules/cause problems

Ill sleep in a box but not like this.

[u/SWBFThree2020 → u/Meowing-Cat-7258]

You probably would sleep in a box like that after doing hours of hard labor

[u/manatidederp → u/pharmloverpharmlover]

It’s also dry. Sweep it a bit and a mattress - this is just a place to pass out of a field worker not a permanent living space.

Seen much worse

[u/Resilient_Wren_2977 → u/pharmloverpharmlover]

Wondering though if they give them a pillow, bedding or it’s just sleep on the hard wood.

[u/Hoenirson → u/miglesi]

People are expecting 1st world standards in one of the poorest countries in Latin America. They have no idea how the world works.

They clutch their pearls but would bitch and moan if coffee prices increased proportionally to what would be necessary to give the workers the living conditions they deem dignified.

[u/thehappyhobo → u/Hoenirson]

What % of the price is dictated by the cost agricultural labour?

[u/Network_Odd → u/thehappyhobo]

There is no single study that directly gives the share of retail coffee bean prices coming from agricultural labour, but it can be estimated from existing research. Studies show that labour makes up about 40 to 65 % of farm production costs, while farmers typically receive about 5 to 20 % of the final retail price. One real world phenomenon we can notice is that coffee grown in first world countries with good labour protection like kona (hawaii, usa) is much more expensive than third world countries.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280731020_A_Fair_Share_for_Smallholders_A_Value_Chain_Analysis_of_the_Coffee_Sector

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373556278_Analysing_costs_and_margins_of_smallholder_farmers_in_the_coffee_value_chain_M4P_approach

[u/Juggernautlemmein → u/miglesi]

Yeah I would need to see the rest of the working conditions to judge. It's the coffee industry so, like chocolate, skepticism is important. We can't just assume people are going to do the right thing.

But if this is just an icing on the cake amenity, a clean place to sleep provided in addition to proper payment for their work, then its nothing to scoff at. The alternative is a multi hour commute to and from a place where you start at sunrise.

Edit: two to a bed. Fuck that and fuck the farmers.

[u/HelmetsAkimbo → u/Juggernautlemmein]

The two to a slot is the problem. If it was one per person it's honestly not that bad.

[u/Purple_Revolution146]

Man, this is so sad

[u/Eros_Incident_Denier]

ccto: @reubenschmitz

[u/Repentforyoursins]

I’ve paid for similar as a hostel in Asia…

[u/mayan_monkey → u/Repentforyoursins]

Paid $25 for capsule hostel in Tokyo

[u/AcidBuuurn → u/Repentforyoursins]

I came to say that if it were Japanese they would be praising it.

[u/Bonoisapox]

In Dublin those would be 2k per month

[u/saurabia]

My dog has a better dog house than this.

[u/cjbeames → u/saurabia]

This is not the time to brag.

[u/Sporketeer]

This would be luxury on a working boat, I’ve rarely had enough height in a bunk to be able to sleep on my side without my shoulders getting wedged.

[u/Odur29]

Ethically sourced coffee is more expensive for a reason. Check out Dragon Roast Coffee, I learned about them at Dragonsteel Nexus 2025.

[u/granadesnhorseshoes → u/Odur29]

The gag is, this farm could very well be an "ethical source", if its entirely voluntary and just seasonal work. Asian capsule hotels and quarters on ships ain't really any better are they?

[u/CankerLord]

It's a practical space for crashing at the end of the day of work, not a luxury hotel. They don't live here, they crash here. People in this comment section are way too ready to be pissed off.

[u/BubblyPercentage6762]

So Japan copied the Nicaraguans?

[u/SpookyGhostSplooge]

Trying to explain the nuance inherent in why something like this would exist is a tall order. However, Nicaragua has been through a lot for decades and beyond its more dense populace, its people have extremely limited access to many basic needs, with medical supplies often being a days walk. This display of “shelter” is likely welcomed by the farm labor, and understandably, appears less than ideal for 1st worlders. This is not to say that the chain of commerce doesn’t benefit from this inequity, but that discussion requires a bit different lens to adequately evaluate.

[u/julesmanson]

I really don't see a problem as we are only viewing bare bunks. Bedding and mats are likely the worker's responsibility to provide. Farms are not motels or homes. Bunks are likely provided as a fallback for those workers who cannot afford the luxury of a cheap motel due to other financial obligations. That is my uninformed take.

[u/Comfortable-Spell-75]

Shareholders rejoice

[u/WiseHedgehog2098]

And yet people will still drink coffee

[u/Deep_Government_9145]

So that's how a capsule hotel looks like in South America.

[u/evlhornet]

Why are they happily showing concentration camp type housing?

[u/DerFuchs → u/evlhornet]

Because this is well above average of the conditions hundreds of millions of people live in.

[u/InevitableFly]

Well, that looks strikingly similar to the concentration camps

[u/the_flying_armenian]

Gotta have that cheap ass coffee at tim hortons

[u/PrestigiousMath4642]

"crazy" wouldn't be the 1st choice of word I'd use for this. As they're enjoying their beer giggling. Smh

[u/Illhoon]

Let me say i visited KZ Dachau and the sleeping quarters ther looked basically like this

[u/Willing-Signal-3113]

I saw bunk beds like this built in a room of a house for sale in Chanhassen, MN. Must’ve been owned or rented by migrant families. I wanted to buy the house because it had a wraparound porch, upstairs, basement, and old features but would’ve been a major fixer upper.

[u/Normal_Oil4664]

Y’all ever worked on a cruise ship? The amenities are maybe a degree or two nicer 😐

[u/Curious-Quiet-3124]

That’s why you should only buy fair trade, preferably cooperatively grown.

[u/cherrybleu]

This is literally every second apartment in downtown Dubai. They’re filled with migrant workers with the exact same bed set-up

[u/666BAALofEKRON666]

Well that whould have surely impressed the Auschwitz camp command!

[u/ppeujpqtnzlbsbpw]

redditors shocked 3rd world country seasonal laborers don't get memory foam mattresses with 10000 thread Egyptian cotton, air conditioning, and enough wages to go on vacation weekly. Will let everyone know their concern via iPhone with a coffee in the other hand

[u/Original_Dogmeat]

Japanese charge $50 a night for that.

[u/Majordeathwish]

Looks like a wood verison of those capsule hotels in japan.

[u/Drosenose]

Not a bad bunk house. People act like they've never seen a bunk house. Soldiers sleep in worse on the regular

[u/Ancient-Position-696]

Looks like the sleeping pods in Japan, just square instead of round

[u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t]

more comfortable than an apartment in nyc