Geoeraphy

757 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cultural diversity in the USA, essay

Twelve items selected from my closet for this project. They were manufactured in China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, India, and the U.S. Five countries in this list are located in Asia; The U.S, China, and India are three of the six contemporary world powers. For physical locations, both of China and Vietnam located in the East and Southeast Asia; India and Pakistan located in the south Asia; Turkey located in the Middle East, and the U.S located in the North America. Despite I purchased those clothes in the U.S, according to the chart, it is easy to observe that six items were made in China, and two made in Vietnam. This fact reflects that China and Vietnam became significant signs of manufacturing in the world. In addition, the larger percentage of "made in China or Vietnam" and the economic globalization cannot be separated.
The United States became the superpower in the world after the cold war with the former USSR, and the power of the U.S still has a significant influence in different fields. Also, it possesses large area which includes fifty states. According to the World Factbook, the imports are over than the exports in the U.S economy. Most of the industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods are imported products in the U.S markets. The structure of ethnic group in the U.S is more complex than other countries due to various immigrants from all over the world presented themselves in the U.S through couple centuries. As a result, different immigrants and their posterity made the characteristic of diversity of the U.S society and culture.
Similarly, China also has a wide area for many provinces and marginal sea, and its area is just a little larger than the area of the U.S. However, China is a big country for its lar...

... middle of paper ...

..., higher birth rate, total fertility rate, infant mortality rate and more poor people. The population of India is also four times of the U.S population—the same situation as China, but the area of India is just one over four of the U.S area. Women still hold a large percentage of the garment labors in those countries but the working condition is worse—the poor economic and health development are the major cause which cannot be ignored. Their cheap labor forces and the demand for economic development promote the “sweat factories” found in those underdeveloped countries.
From this closet analysis first I learned the basic overview of several countries which produced my clothes. Second, based on those statistics to critically think and made connection from my clothes to the global trade networks. In this point, a personal closet is a reflection of the global market.

Show More
Related

  • Sweatshops In The 1800s

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sweatshops started around the 1830’s when industrialization started growing in urban areas. Most people who worked in them at the time were immigrants who didn't have their papers. They took jobs where they thought they'd have the most economic stability. It’s changed a bit since then, companies just want the cheapest labor they can get and to be able to sell the product in order to make a big profit. It’s hard to find these types of workers in developed areas so they look toward 3rd world countries. “sweatshops exist wherever there is an opportunity to exploit workers who lack the knowledge and resources to stand up for themselves.” (Morey) In third world countries many people are very poor and are unable to afford food and water so the kids are pulled out of school and forced to work so they can try to better their lives. This results in n immense amount of uneducated people unaware they can have better jobs and that the sweatshops are basically slavery. With a large amounts uneducated they continue the cycle of economic instability. There becomes no hope for a brighter future so people just carry on not fighting for their basic rights. Times have changed. 5 Years ago companies would pay a much larger amount for a product to be made but now if they’re lucky they’ll pay half, if a manufacturer doesn't like that another company will happily take it (Barnes). Companies have gotten greedier and greedier in what they’ll pay to have a product manufactured. Companies have taken advantage of the fact that people in developing countries will do just about anything to feed their families, they know that if the sweatshop in Cambodia don't like getting paid 2 dollars per garment the one in Indonesia will. This means that there is less money being paid to the workers which mean more will starve and live in very unsafe environments. Life is

    Read More

  • A T-Shirt In The Global Economy Summary

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyday across the world, people wake up in the morning and get ready for the day, they look in their closet and think for a second about what to wear, but has anyone ever stopped to think about where their t-shirt came from. The author of “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” Pietra Rivoli has pondered over that question and in order to thoroughly answer it, she traveled across the world to track down where her t-shirt came from and the life it had before it came into her hands at a local convenient store. In this well thought out book, she discusses a wide range of information regarding the production of cotton which resulted to the teaching of economics and key terms associated with it.

    Read More

  • Jo-Ann Pilardi's Immigration Problem Is About Us Not Them?

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is true that the more people from different cultures that are in a given area, the more the cultures are diversified. However, with all realities, some claim that immigrants dilute the American culture. Indeed, they cause some changes to the culture. Nevertheless, these changes can bring a wealth of attraction and a source of beauty for the country that everyone should be proud of. It is obvious that every single immigrant in the US has his own culture and way of life. When all these are added together, they form a very rich culture. In addition, they bring various interesting aspects such as food, music, literature, etc. That makes the Americans rich in cultural knowledge. The importance of cultural diversity is that it teaches the people to understand each other’s views, interests, and ideas and helps people view the world in different ways. This would finally lead the society to work towards each other’s interest, mutual goals, and objectives. Tamar Jacoby in his article “Are Today’s Immigrants Assimilating in U.S Society, Yes,” he said that, “Those who are coming now are people who understand cultural fluidity, understand intermarriage and find that a natural, easy thing. This maintains unity and balances in the society” (411). Once this stage is reached, all the problems would be solved. Then it can be said that America has reached a true democracy, echoed by

    Read More

  • Mama's Back Summary

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his essay, “How Susie Bayer’s T-Shirt Ended up on Yusuf Mama’s Back”, George Packer points out an issue that has often been ignored in the society. People leave their used clothes outside the Salvation Army or church, but they do not know where the clothes will go eventually. George Packer did a lot of interviews and investigation into the used clothes trade. Based on this report, many cutural and gender issues have been raised. George Parker uses convincing data as well, since he followed closely the trail of one T-shirt to its final owner in Uganda.

    Read More

  • American Immigration In The Early 20th Century

    1685 Words  | 4 Pages

    Immigration in the first years of the twentieth century had a profound impact on American society, culture and the political landscape. The effect of this immigration helped to determine the United States’ global persona for the entire century. As larger groups of Western Europeans immigrated to the United States, in the first twenty years, they brought with them, their culture, traditions, and European (old world) mode of thought. When they became vastly intertwined within the culture of the factory towns and metropolitan cities their influence can be seen and felt. The influence on politics is most especially keen, as most of Europe is more of social and left leaning society, their impact on the United States which at the time was

    Read More

  • Italian Immigration and the United States of America

    1705 Words  | 4 Pages

    Today we live in a world of which some have come to understand where it all came from. So many different little contributions have accumulated over the years to create “today” in the United States of America. Not one factor is more important than the next, however, some have had a larger, lasting impact today. Immigration and racial discrimination have played the most important role as to why American society has altered. In 1917 America entered World War one. By doing this America played a grave role in conquering Germany and ushering peace to Europe. However, the Great War also meant that the US would change dramatically through historical issues and changes which resulted in American society. Industries had started to realize that it was not as simple as it was before to abstract the immigrants. As the country developed and became more successful it attracted outsiders who were searching for chances. During the 1920’s the United States began to confine immigrants due to cultural and economical purposes.

    Read More

  • The Role of Sweatshops in the Global Economy

    2486 Words  | 5 Pages

    The immigrants that were mostly targeted to work in sweatshops came from European countries. These immigrants were not forced to work in sweatshops with poor working conditions, but they had few other choices because most of them were unskilled laborers in a new country. This situation facilitated the growth of sweatshops. Social and economic conditions in cities made it possible for sweatshops owners to choose from a large desperate population of workers willing to take any wage (Childress).... ...

    Read More

  • American History

    434 Words  | 1 Pages

    United States (History), story of how the republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times. As the nation developed, it expanded westward from small settlements along the Atlantic Coast, eventually including all the territory between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the middle of the North American continent, as well as two noncontiguous states and a number of territories. At the same time, the population and the economy of the United States grew and changed dramatically. The population diversified as immigrants arrived from all countries of the world. From its beginnings as a remote English colony, the United States has developed the largest economy in the world. Throughout its history, the United States has faced struggles, both within the country—between various ethnic, religious, political, and economic groups—and with other nations. The efforts to deal with and resolve these struggles have shaped the United States of America into the 21st century.

    Read More

  • Women's Ready-Made Clothing During The Civil War

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    To conclude, the capability to create customized clothing is becoming undemanding as technology evolves. Ready made apparel was only available in predetermined sizes before the American Civil War, this exemplifies how the sizes were arbitrary and were not the same on a broad scale. The statement “The wealthy’s clothes were made by tailors” is a prime example of how tailored outfits are costly. Today, designers have computer-aided design to their disposal; this improved the creation of clothing in many ways, making it effortless to design the clothing and to also produce them. With the creation of new technology making clothes, fabrics will become easier.

    Read More

  • Essay Benefits Of Sweatshops

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contrary to what many people believe, sweatshops actually improve the lives of workers and the surround community. Kristof is a personal witness to this phenomenon. In his words, “My views on sweatshops are shaped by years living in East Asia, watching as living standards soared… because of sweatshop jobs” (Kristof). Its one thing to notice a change in living standards, but how do sweatshops cause this change? In an interview with the Mises Institute on March 20th, 2017, Benjamin Powell reasoned, “Sweatshops bring with them the proximate cause of economic development- capital, technology, and the opportunity to build human capital” (Powell, “Sweatshops: A Way Out of Poverty”). He goes on to talk about how historically living conditions have risen rapidly in countries due to industrialization. Because of lower living conditions already, a sweatshop is no where near as harsh to its workers as it would appear to an outsider. Even

    Read More

  • The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, business professor Pietra Rivoli takes the reader on a fascinating around-the-world adventure to reveal the life story of her six-dollar T-shirt. Traveling from a West Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory, and from trade negotiations in Washington to a used clothing market in Africa, Rivoli examines international trade through the life story of this simple product. Her compelling story shows that both globalization's critics and its supporters have oversimplified the world of international trade.

    Read More

  • Sweat Shops are an Economic Stepping Stone

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    Linda Lim, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, visited Vietnam and Indonesia in the summer of 2000 to obtain first-hand research on the impact of foreign-owned export factories (sweatshops) on the local economies. Lim found that in general, sweatshops pay above-average wages and conditions are no worse than the general alternatives: subsistence farming, domestic services, casual manual labor, prostitution, or unemployment. In the case of Vietnam in 1999, the minimum annual salary was 134 U.S. dollars while Nike workers in that country earned 670 U.S. dollars, the case is also the similar in Indonesia. Many times people in these countries are very surprised when they hear that American's boycott buying clothes that they make in the sweatshops. The simplest way to help many of these poor people that have to work in the sweatshops to support themselves and their families, would be to buy more products produced in the very sweatshops they detest.

    Read More

  • The Fashion Revolution in France

    1465 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early 1800s, France was the sole fashion capital of the world; everyone who was anyone looked towards Paris for inspiration (DeJean, 35). French fashion authority was not disputed until the late twentieth century when Italy emerged as a major fashion hub (DeJean, 80). During the nineteenth century, mass produced clothing was beginning to be marketed and the appearance of department stores was on the rise (Stearns, 211). High fashion looks were being adapted and sold into “midlevel stores” so that the greater public could have what was once only available to the social elite (DeJean, 38). People were obsessed with expensive fashions; wealthy parents were advised not the let their children run around in expensive clothing. People would wait for children dressed in expensive clothing to walk by and then they would kidnap them and steal their clothes to sell for money (DeJean, 39). Accessories were another obsession of France‘s fashion; they felt no outfit was complete without something like jewelry or a shrug to finish off the look and make it all around polished (DeJean, 61). As designers put lines together, marketing began to become important to fashion in the nineteenth century; fashion plates came into use as a way to show off fashion l...

    Read More

  • Consequence Of Fast Fashion Essay

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually and “the average woman in England has 22 unworn items in her closet.”(Johnson) People buy a surplus of clothing, meaning factories make excess textile waste. While there have been many debates whether the clothing industry is the second most polluting industry of the world, second only to oil, there’s no doubt that the fashion industry has made an impact on the world, but not in a good

    Read More

  • Haute Couture Influences Ready-to-wear

    1898 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fashion in the 21th century is a big business, as its production employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Fashion has for the past century been, and is still today, used as an indicator of social change and progress, as it changes with the social norms of the society and the political changes of the world (Finkelstein 3).

    Read More

More about Geoeraphy

Open Document