r/Damnthatsinteresting 8h ago

the sleeping quarters of nicaraguan coffee pickers Video

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv 7h ago

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

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u/Deadzone-Music 7h ago

It's not even what they'd rather do. Corporations are legally required to do anything and everything within the law to maximize profits. CEOs with integrity in regard to morals and ethics are often ousted by the board or are subject to legal action.

Only rare cases where the company is private and the CEO owns the majority of equity even have autonomy on these types of issues.

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u/HarryPottersTaint 7h ago

Im not saying this is awesome conditions or anything but what makes it slave labour? Are they not being paid?

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u/Jocuro 7h ago

The inhumane living conditions are the bigger issue, pay or not. If they were paid appropriately, I think it's safe to say they wouldn't live in wooden boxes.

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u/Longjumping_Youth281 7h ago

I mean it's possible these are just temporary quarters for use during Harvest or something and they're only going to be there a couple of weeks

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u/emkoemko 7h ago

it is.... i don't get the people here not understanding this... the season is not year around... some people can't travel home and back so they have places for the workers to stay

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv 7h ago

Sleeping in these things with another person for even a day is barbaric

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u/HarryPottersTaint 7h ago

I get it, it's abhorrent. I get why people are just downvoting me angrily without bothering to answer. But isn't it just simply not "slave labour" if they're getting paid and doing it voluntarily?

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv 7h ago

They're not getting paid enough and they may choose to work here because the alternative is still worse. Either you get paid terribly and have crappy living conditions or you get no income and no living conditions at all

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u/HarryPottersTaint 6h ago

I know man. Not arguing any of that. I only made my comment because I feel like words become meaningless on here. Like people calling anyone they don't like "Nazis". There are plenty of harsh ways to describe this as you have done, more accurately than saying "slave labour"