Travels of a T-Shirt Book Report Essay

Roberts’s argument and stance is made very clear. It is quite evident that he is for free trade through his depiction of it in the tale. While, some may argue that the author is too biased, it cannot be said that Roberts was not convincing and persuasive. In the

The book Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli is about the journey of a plain cotton shirt internationally through the economy. This book consists of a plain, cheap t-shirt bought at Wal-Mart, is split into four important parts. The first part is about the source of the t-shirt: cotton. The second part is about the creation process the t-shirt goes through while being created in China. The third part is consists of explaining what happens after the t-shirt goes to the United States and faces the American protectionist policies. Lastly, the fourth essential part of this t-shirt is what happens to the shirt when it is finished in America (or other developed nations).

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,

What I found most interesting was the story of Nelson Reinsch and his ability to keep an open mind in order to benefit from an ever-changing system of comparative advantage. Nelson worked his entire life as a cotton farmer, most of which was in the “cottonest city in the world,” Lubbock Texas. It was fascinating to hear first-hand accounts of how the cotton industry changed throughout Nelson’s life. Nelson adapted to the changing industry where farmers stuck in their traditional ways were eventually left behind. Nelson and other farmers in the region benefited from their relationships with

Finally is Part IV of the book, “My T-shirt Finally Encounters a Free Market.” This section deals with what happens to the clothes after they are discarded, usually through donation to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. In fact, American donations to these kinds of organizations have increased so much that they have begun exporting the recycled clothing, “nearly 7 billion pounds” (Rivoli 176), to other countries. The recycled industry has actually created jobs in Africa as America’s old clothes are

Rivoli is not arguing for either free trade or protectionism. This is because she is an economist who already supports free trade; however, she also believes that both free trade and protectionism have their advantages.

The producers in the new T-shirt value chain do not operate in a free market system. Government protectionist measures such as subsidies, quotas, and tariffs have limited economic success to a fortunate few. According to the author Pietra Rivoli, “the winners at various stages of my T-shirt’s life are adept not so much at competing in markets but at avoiding them.” These winners include the U.S. cotton farmer and the China apparel industry. Their market dominance and profitability have benefitted significantly from the political prowess of their government to limit competition.

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

Before his majesty’s enlightened reforms, I suffered from a severe economic loss. Struggling to compete with foreign products and domestic trade restrictions, I even hesitated to shut down my business. However, his majesty’s policies saved me and my whole family. In 1763, the textile industry gained his majesty’s enthusiasm. His majesty offered as many help as he could to factory owners like me, including substantial amount of advices on designs, new export markets, and business management.

Protectionism, specifically, is a reaction to the inherently unequal outcomes and instability of a global economic system. Both Ferguson and Krugman see protectionism as antithetical to globalization. Protectionism, though, has been the last ditch effort of states attempting to shield themselves from the unpredictability caused by globalization.This is most apparent in the agricultural sector, where global fluctuations in prices can harm a state’s ability to feed its populace. Of the current age of globalization, Krugman writes that, “When the prices of wheat, rice and corn soared…many governments rushed to protect domestic consumers by banning or limiting exports, leaving food-importing countries in dire straits.” When laborers in a democratic nation cannot afford to purchase enough of the crops they produce in order to feed themselves, then the government has little choice than to intervene and impose tariffs. This in turn causes problems in food-importing countries, who long ago exchange agricultural capabilities for industry. The irony is that protectionism is both is a reaction to the disruption in the global system and the cause of the cascading effect of those

Textile production and consumption is an increasingly global affair as production continues to shift to developing countries. Developing countries have seen an explosion in the growth of their textile

The report says that textiles, and particularly clothing, have dominated Bangladesh 's exports, with their combined share growing from 70.4% in 1992 to 83.5% in 1998. These exports have been a principal source of Bangladesh 's economic growth in the 1990s. The exports are destined mostly for the U.S. and European Union markets, to which Bangladesh has privileged access. The report notes that such heavy dependence on a limited number of products makes the Bangladesh economy vulnerable to increased competition from other Asian countries that produce labour-intensive garments, as these countries recover from the recent economic crisis with substantially depreciated currencies. Moreover, the phasing out of preferential access to these

After consideration and deliberation over the aforesaid economic and non-economic factors relating to the manufacturing and production of a company’s goods within the clothing industry, various companies recognized that they could maximize their profits, while maintaining their local corporate offices and distribution sites, by simply setting up manufacturing and production locations in countries with lower labor costs, compared to the country that the company’s headquarters is located. An example of this theory would be for a company to have its headquarters, or corporate offices, in Switzerland, while establishing manufacturing and production locations in a foreign country, such as Bangladesh. Among other factors to take into consideration, the impact that this approach can have on the company by increasing the company’s profit margin, by lowering production and labor costs, can be simply seen by comparing Switzerland’s average cost of labor (i.e. $35.00 per hour), to Bangladesh’s average cost of labor (i.e. $0.20 per hour). (Globalization Exercise # 2, slide 16).

Trade protectionism is defined as “Policies that limit imports, usually with the goal of protecting domestic producers in import-competing industries from foreign competition” (Krugman, Wells, Graddy 538). Trade protectionism can appear to be a useful tool for governments to employ against social problems such as unemployment, or to assist in overcoming the obstacles faced when establishing a domestic industry. In the long term, however, trade protectionism will slow economic growth and negatively impact the industries that the government is seeking to protect. This paper will attempt to show how trade protection methods such as tariffs and import quotas can seem beneficial initially but eventually cause long term economic harm, and will close by briefly discussing free trade as a viable alternative to trade protectionism.

According to Technopak Advisors, India is one of the largest textile producers in the world and is still growing. They are second only to their neighbors, China, and India is predicted to have a US$ 223 billion industry by the year 2021. In 2010 the Ministry of Textiles in India openly shared that textiles were responsible for 11.04% of India’s total exports. This year, according to ibef.org, textile exports were estimated to be around US$ 28.53 billion from April 2013 to January 2014. It is clear to see that India is a major player in the world concerning textile exports and manufacturing and according to Dr. A Sakthivel, Chairmen of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (A Brief Report Textile Industry in India, 2012), India will continue to advance and reach roughly US $60 billion over the next three years.