How Much Do You Spend at Starbucks a Month?

Someone asked me this question the other day and the answer has changed the way I view my life and priorities. The reality is that at $5 a day for an average drink at Starbucks, I spend more money on coffee than the contracted cooks make in a month working at Hacienda El Refugio. Minimum wage in Ecuador is $1 an hour… that’s US dollars folks. At 40 hour a week, that means $2080 a year. Most of us make that in a month; some of us make that in a week. Granted our cooks make more than the minimum wage, but at 80 hours a month (their contracted hours), I still spend more on coffee than they take home. So, I guess my question is: is my coffee worth more than a family consisting of a mom and dad, twin 9 year-old boys and an adorable 16 month-old little girl? I find it hard to believe that I can go back to the states, go to Starbucks everyday and not think of what that $5 a day can do for them.