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An American consumer goes to Dunkin Donuts, orders a cup of coffee to start up his day, pays about $3, and leaves. No big deal, right? Wrong. If this American consumer were asked where his or her coffee came from the consumer would most likely have no idea. Not only would the consumer have no idea, he or she probably have never thought about it before. The truth is that four multinational companies, all making extremely large profits, dominate the coffee industry. However, the small farmers who sweat over the labor day after day are living under the nations poverty line under $2 a day, which is barely enough to survive. Keeping this in mind, you will see that buying a typical morning cup of coffee involves every consumer in a difficult human rights situation. The encyclical of Pope Leo XIII “Rerum Novarum” was a way that Christian churches played an active role in criticizing the exploitation of industrial workers from the evils that industrialization brought to the modern world. This official statement by the Catholic Church defended the rights and liberties of laborers and the poor within modern industrialized societies. One of these rights that “Rerum Novarum” issued was that “every person, from the moment of conception to natural death, has inherent dignity and a right to life consistent with that dignity.” (Reflections, pp 1-2) The right to work brings a person dignity. However, backbreaking work with less than minimal rewards does not confirm the dignity a person gets from work.
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