Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt was an interesting story published by NPR about how globalization is an integral part of making everyday items such as a t-shirt. This story contained five chapters (Cotton, Machines, People, Boxes, and You) that follow the hands that an item will pass through before being bought by a consumer, otherwise known as a commodity chain. Each chapter follows a t-shirt or the material used to make it and discusses issues with economics and ethics that revolve around the product as each chapter discusses how globalization has strong ties with a t-shirt.
Technology plays an important role in the global economy. Even in farms where people wouldn’t expect too much technology to be housed. Bowen Flowers, a cotton farmer in
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In the chapter People, we meet Jasmine and are able to follow what her life is like working in the clothing factory. Jasmine lives in poverty, however, the poverty she’s living in now is not as bad as what she experienced in the small village where she grew up. Her family went into debt trying to pay for her older sister’s dowery, so in order to help offset the costs, Jasmine decided to travel to a larger city to work in the garment industry. This is an example of internal migration, a concept that exists in many countries where people move within the borders of their own country. In the factory where Jasmine works, she is underpaid and has to live with multiple people in a house where there is no running water. Unfortunately, Jasmine is not the only one who is in this position. Millions of people in Bangladesh are in the garment industry and choose to take low paying jobs and work long hours rather than exist in a worse situation where they had originally been raised in. In another article, Two Sisters, A Small Room And The World Behind A T-Shirt, the story of two sisters, who also work in a clothing factory, named Shumi and Minu is told. These girls lived in a small village where they struggled to survive. They even had three younger sisters who died very young because the family had trouble feeding themselves. They have a similar story to Jasmine as they both live with …show more content…
Doing so allows more product to be transferred around the globe and if problems occur, it’s usually at a Customs and Border Patrol officer. In the article, The Giant Book That Creates And Destroys Entire Industries, It talks more about how location can affect entire industries. A few years ago, the United States signed a free-trade agreement in which Columbia would not have to pay any tariffs. If Columbia did have to pay tariffs, the CEO of the company who made the shirts had said that they would be unable to ship their products to America (Goldstein, 2013). As a result, of the free trade agreement, the factories remain in the countries where they are, however, some people are worried about their jobs being outsourced to a different country. As the economy gets better in Columbia, the more likely it will be that a company may pull out of the factory as it becomes increasingly expensive to have simple products made in a country where wages are higher. This frightens people as they will lose their jobs if these companies pull out of the country. As mentioned before, the worst thing that can happen to the employees that both activists and CEO’s agree on, is if a company pulls out of the country to find cheaper costs of production elsewhere (“Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt,”
The Planet T-Shirt contains five chapters that will show how a t-shirt can travel the world. The first section talks about how cotton produces in Delta, Mississippi farm. America produces more cotton in the world, and 90 percent of the cotton is genetically modified. Technology has made a significant impact on the cotton farm; farmers use the machine to pick cotton. One cotton farm can produce nine million t-shirt equivalent of every person in New York City. The second chapter is about the machine that makes the process of raw cotton. U.S. exports the cotton to different countries that produce fabrics. In the video, it shows various kind of machine that processes the cotton such as Trutzschlet Blendomat, Schlafhorst SE-8 OE Spinning machine,
The similarities of the two stories is that the both are at school and end up going
In her book, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, Pietra Rivoli takes on the intricacies and complexities of trade and globalization through following the path of a T-Shirt she purchased from Walgreens for $5.99. It is a very informative book and her writing is such that the reader is left feeling both well informed on the issues discussed, as well as entertained.
Life for young Elva Treviño Hart was less than ideal and in her autobiography, Barefoot Heart she vividly explains the back-breaking work, financial hardships, and emotional struggles a migrant worker faces. Influenced by the struggles of day-to-day life, migrant work, school life, and society, Elva was shown over and over again what life would be like if she did not make an effort to change her predestined life. All too commonly people like Elva Treviño who are born into poverty will remain living in such conditions for the rest of their lives; however, growing up in poor conditions will have a great positive influence the life decisions someone like Elva makes.
“The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” focuses on a t-tshirt that makes its way around the world from the beginning stages of production to the end of its usefulness. Pietra Rivoli, an economist and the author of the book, tracks the life story of her t-shirt and explores the relationships between people, politics and markets.
It lacks continuous improvement in its production process in order to reduce production costs. (Columbia’s production cost is higher than that of competitors.)
On the 24th of April 2013, a tragedy occurred in Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in the deaths of more than 1000 people and the destruction of a nine-story garment factory “Rana Plaza” (Manik& Yardley, n.d.,). However, the unsatisfactory condition of the building was known to employees. The day before the tragedy, several cracks were noticed, yet the owner of the factory ignored the warning by police to suspend the factory. In addition, workers were physically intimidated which shows, illustrating the power of society and the desperation of financial condition as individuals (Hossain, 2013). 80% of the workers at the Rana Plaza were female; this was because their labor was the cheapest in the world, with the minimum income BDT being 3000 taka per month (the equivalent of 37 Australian dollars) (Burke, 2013). This industry represented the international fashion labels in Europe, America, cosmopolitanism and progressive brands such as Benetton etc. Most of the factory’s textile products were internationally exported, earning foreign currency and allowing it to become the largest industry in Bangladesh. The “Rana Plaza” was one of the main industry, which maintained the economy and society as individuals in Bangladesh. The power of capital at the Bangladesh level is the arrangement of dominance transnational businesses at the global level, which is a smaller rate of powerful
As a person that has grown most of my own food, without chemicals or engine powered equipment, for the last 15 years and lesser so for many more years I can relate to some degree what it may have been like for a farmer in the 1800’s (I even live in a house built in 1850).
The reasoning behind this is they both don’t change throughout the course of the story, keeping the same attitude and characteristics throughout the story. They both care about children and they both carry themselves in a way that demands respect. That’s about where the similarities end.
One of the most prominent similarities between the two is the alienation they felt from their mothers. Despite the love they
In the book, “Where am I wearing” written by Kelsey Timmerman goes on a adventure to find out where and who made the clothes that he wears everyday. Kelsey Timmerman believes that the people impacted by globalization encounter more problems and struggles than someone in a non globalized country. Did you know that the average amount someone is china makes per hour is one dollar and thirty six cents compared to the U.S where on average they make twenty three dollars and thirty two cents per hour. Even though the men and women in china are working roughly 3.6 hours more than people in the U.S.
I would like to give an example of Macdonald's organizational culture strengths. based on my observation, the first thing I have noticed in their restaurant is McDonald's believe that good customer service is the responsibility of everybody in the firm. Every employee play role in providing with a quality service with good practice found everywhere in the business. McDonald grant high-quality products, such as burgers, fries, drinks, muffins, etc, which are safe and stable that it does what it is ought to do. Even though they provide quality services, they also value money in their businesses which is why when you buy one extra value meal and get one free with a food voucher that demonstrates the offer only.This helps them compete well with other fast food businesses. Their employees are well trained in giving service to their customers. All of these represent Macdonald's organizational culture 's strengths. In terms of weakness, the big weakness observed in MacDonald culture is that they offer fatty food and affordable at a cheap price by displaying it junk food which encourages obesity and heart disease. For example, my sister gets fat because of eating Macdonald's fatty food.
How was this paper typed? It was typed on a MacBook Pro, which was manufactured in China. How did the laptop come into possession? Simple: globalization. Globalization is the “worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders” (Guest, 19). But, Kelsey Timmerman defines globalization as finding cheap labor overseas to meet “…tight margins…” (Timmerman, 8). What this means, for example, is that some guy, Steve Jobs, had the idea to invent a piece of technology that would forever change mankind, and with his idea, that invention is now being mass-produced and sold all over the world. Many corporations have also ventured into overseas production of their products.
The people of those countries will be mad if that company moves out. Since companies have gone global, their officers are also from different parts of the world. Their headquarters are in one place and factories in another. It starts to get hard to tell where the company belongs.
“In addition, a large portion of our merchandise is sourced, directly or indirectly, from outside the United States, with China as our single largest source. Political or financial instability, currency fluctuations, trade restrictions, the outbreak of pandemics, labor unrest, transport capacity and costs, port security, weather conditions, natural disasters or other events that could slow or disrupt port activities and affect foreign trade are beyond our control and could disrupt our supply of merchandise and/or adversely affect our results of operations.” (Page 7-8)