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Comment by zuzululu

5 days ago

I took a brief look at some of the products like coffee and im not sure they are competitive. What exactly is the premium coming from ?

9 comments

zuzululu

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komali2  5 days ago

I've been thinking about this recently: I think our economy is fake.

Restaurants are expensive lately, but still, as a former restaurant owner, even the expensive 10$ takeout burrito I don't think would be possible without the great many laws the supply chain breaks. Undocumented labor from the farms through to the restaurants, for starters. Then the fact that the equipment we use is built in places that don't have our labor or health and safety laws, which lets those places manufacture for much cheaper prices, which feels like cheating.

If we actually had a level playing field and didn't break laws, I don't think most of the luxuries we enjoy could actually exist at anywhere near current prices (and thus not at all).

one33seven  5 days ago

Coffee is much cheaper with slavery or ultra heavy exploitation. Once the workers have a say in it, the prices normalize.

  • zuzululu  4 days ago

    Farmers typically retain only around 1% to 10% of the final retail price wether its labeled "ethical" or "co-op" or whatever is teh new "organic".

    Even if you double the wages paid to pickers, the final cost to the consumer only needs to increase by a few cents, the rest are margins captured by simply labelling the coffee beans

    I know because I used to work for a trader that specialized in coffee futures

_factor  5 days ago

Real coffee beans not genetically engineered to grow fast with caffeine densities high enough to make explosives out of.