Travels Of A T-Shirt In The Global Economy Summary

For example, farming was the main source of income for the Confederate states. The main southern chief crop which came to be known as King Cotton, accounted for 57% of all U.S. exports (“Civil War”). However, in order to produce these large amounts of cotton, the southern Confederate states depended heavily on slave labor. Since cotton production began to dominate and fuel the southern economy, the South felt that they did not need to industrialize like their northern neighbors did. This caused the South to manufacture very little goods and caused them to purchase manufactured goods from the industrialized North or to purchase imported goods from overseas.

“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.

Often, when we think of a t-shirt, not much consideration goes past throwing it on and walking out the door. We discover in The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, author Pietra Rivoli conveys the story of a t-shirt she purchased in Florida for just $5.99. Beginning with core element of the t-shirt, she describes the cotton boom in the United States and why we have reigned supreme as the leading cotton producer. She even meets with a Texan farmer who warms your heart from the very beginning of the chapter. Next, the cotton goes on to textile mills and factories, and Rivoli explains the history of the textile industry. With this lesson, she demonstrates how the textile industry boom was a

Cotton: used in the clothes worn today, but is that all there is to cotton? During the 1700s up to the late 1800s cotton was harvest by slaves. When someone puts on a cotton shirt on they most likely does not think about the past slaves who were forced and tortured and abused all for the cultivation of cotton, It’s essential to mention that slavery was on its way to a natural death during the late 1700s, since the enlightenment and the great awakening combined caused people to think about the inhumanity of slavery. The main factor, however, was the fact that cotton was a difficult crop to harvest. In fact, cotton was a tedious crop to deal with until Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793. This invention caused slavery to continue on several more years and this invention, although it seemed to benefit America at the time, has caused America to be behind with equal rights.

     After the invention of the cotton gin, the production of unprocessed cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Other inventions of the Industrial Revolution were the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat to transport it. America was growing three quarters of the world's supply of cotton in the mid-century. Most of it was shipped to England or New England where it was made into cloth. During this time, tobacco’s value decreased, rice exports stayed at the same price, and sugar began to flourish, but only

In her book “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy,” Pietra Rivoli explores the journey that a T-shirt makes while being produced and the effects it has on the global economy. She begins by explaining that the US continues to dominate in the cotton industry, even after 200 years. She introduces the reader to Lubbock, Texas the “cottenest city” in the US (5). The author explains that US domination in the cotton industry is due to a variety of reasons which she spends the rest of the chapter exploring and explaining. The first reason, she explains, is due to the subsidies that farmers in the US receive.

The next part of the story was about globalization, which aims to protect the influence of trade barriers outside the country. Therefore, the metaphorical T-short briefly captured a glimpse of El Salvador, Bolivia, the United States, China, Cambodia, and other countries. Although for the reasons of fairness, the author really just wanted to introduce in more depth the economic and trade realities brought about by the globalization of the textile industry. After all, Rivoli is an economist; data, statistical data, and other large researches that have support the story from paragraph to paragraph, and being some of the most surprising conclusion. Among them, the first and most important point is that, as for as the new clothing industry is concerned, this kind of trade is not as least completely free. However, the most enjoyable thing is the T-shirts have taken a step further, and the story of second-hand clothing was brought to

The book I am reviewing is The Travel of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli. Some main points I found in the book was when he mentions how they seceded themselves through the use of immigrant workers, china had low pay, long hours, and poor working conditions. Also how women were considered low labor workers and when they raised the minimum wage. They would use the work of immigrants instead of white men because of how lazy white men were. They also included how the workers may only work for one single employer so the cotton growers wouldn't have to worry about them leaving to someone else that would pay them better.

With the elimination of U.S. government subsidies, cotton textile manufacturers will pay more for cotton. As the leading buyer of cotton, the Chinese apparel industry’s profitability will be reduced due to their inability to pass on increased cotton prices to their buyers. China’s manufacturing costs had already increased by as much as 40% due to higher market wages and costs with complying with worker and environmental protections. Although China has substantial labor and is accused of utilizing sweat shops to keep their costs extremely low, their increasing manufacturing costs have opened the door to other countries with cheap labor such as Vietnam and Pakistan.

The sweatshops also take advantage of the poor that live in a country to make these cheap clothing. In the book The travels of a T-shirt in a Global Economy: An Economist Examines the markets, Rivoli talks about how these workers are treated. Such as “young women forced to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day, earning as little as 12 to 18 cents an hour with no benefits, housed in cramped, dirty rooms, fed on thin rice gruel, stripped of their legal rights, under constant surveillance and intimidation” (Rivoli p 89). The worker becomes something cheap and disposable. According to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church “These workers constitute the firm's most valuable asset and the decisive factor of production” (Compendium

So far I have completed around 25% of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global. I intend on completing this book before the end of September. One thing that has definitely surprised me was mentioned in the first chapter of the book when the author discussed how 1,000 acres of land produces about 500,ooo pounds of cotton which can create around 1.3 million T-shirts. I found this surprising because that is a lot of t-shirts being created from one farm. One economic principle I found while reading this was ‘there is no free lunch’. This principle is significant in the book because it is found literally everywhere in the book. Since nothing is free, every time anything gets brought up there is a consequence. For example, the subsidies, farmers

There are many step to producing a T-Shirt, which are carried out by different countries. US plays cotton provider role, most of cotton used to make T-Shirt in Planet Money was grown at US. By using high technology to increase productivity in cotton manufacture, US become the largest cotton exporter in the world. After collecting cotton from the farm, it was packed and exported to Bangladesh, Columbia or Indonesia for next process. In spinning factory, to begin, raw cotton was sucked up and laid down in big sheet, then they are straightened and pulled into long

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.

Carly LeBlanc is a student intern in Fashionforward!, which is an auction site and allow their customers to bid on designer apparel. During her three months internship, she helped the company to gain visibility on the internet and get more clients. Since her marketing strategy worked on her campus, she is going to develop her idea over the country. However, there are two options for her: order T-shirt from Chinese manufactory or a fair-trade company in San Francisco. In order to make a correct decision, this essay focuses on three themes: ethic, global perspective, and counter-argument.

Here I am submitting my Term Paper on “Ready made garments: A Case Study on Export performance” as per requirement of the course Theory and practice of