Social Problem Application #1 – Coffee Production

Social class is determined by a group’s relationship to the means of production. In this assignment, you will map the means of production and apply the concepts found within capitalism: consumption and production, Bourgeoisies and Proletariats, and commodity/goods.

On page 20 of the report, List of Goods, ListofGoods.pdf which lists goods made by child, forced and child forced labor, there are 10 commodities that are identified as produced by child, forced and child forced labor.

Coffee is one of the commodities in the report. Apply Marx’ theory of Social Class by mapping the social relations of capitalism in the means of coffee production. Specifically, answer:

1. Who are the Bourgeoisies and Proletariats of the industry? Specifically, who owns and works (provide the names of owners and net worth of companies) and include the wages of the Proletariats within the industry.
   1. To answer this, you will need to look up the most successful corporation and explore their website to find the Board of Directors.
   2. Do Board members identify with other corporations on the Coffee distribution corporation website? If so, which ones?
   3. Additionally, you will need to find what is the average wage of a worker in that industry/company?
2. Do the workers (Proletariats) consume the goods or are the goods allocated to different markets outside of the work zone?
   1. To answer this, you will need to learn about the market – specifically, where is the good (also called commodity) grown? (Please refer to the document I have provided on coffee production coffee-production.pdf). You will need to compare this information to where coffee is consumed.

Please use online sources and include these sources in your paper in a reference section. You may use any formatting style of your choice (MLA, APS, ASA, etc.) Your analysis should include at least 5 paragraphs: one, an introduction that discusses Marx’ theory and your analysis; a second paragraph that answers #1a-b. from the writing prompt above; a third paragraph that answers #1c from above; a forth that answers #2 from above; and a final paragraph that concludes your findings and ties the evidence back to Marx’ theory. You may use more than 5 paragraphs but limit your essay to 2 pages, 12-point font.

Submissions shall be documents in pdf, doc/docx. No cloud submissions please, as these often have technical glitches where I cannot open the file.

On the next page I have provided an outline and resources for your assignment.

Below is an outline to conduct your research.

Which region and then countries produces the most coffee? Open the document on coffee production:

http://www.ico.org/prices/po-production.pdf (Links to an external site.)

Which company sells the most coffee?

Companies that sell coffee by ranked corporate worth:

https://www.fdfworld.com/top10/top-10-coffee-companies-world (Links to an external site.)

You will then need to research the company that has the highest worth.

Do a google search for “the company’s name Board of Directors”. This will link you to the Board’s website.

To answer 1a. list the names of each of the Board members.

To answer 1b. write the corporations each Board members identify with in addition to the coffee company.

To answer 1c. do google searches by asking two questions:

First, “Average wage of coffee picker in (insert the nation where coffee production is highest)” and

Second, “Average (insert the name of the company) employee wages”. How much does the average barista earn? Include this in your essay.

To answer 2. go to google and search for “where are (insert the name of the company) internationally” – compare this list with the production of coffee nationally list. Write about this in your essay.