Before reading this book “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” by Pietra Rivoli, I had envisioned this book to be irreverent and was written in a witty manner, but after reading the first chapter I found out that I was wrong. This book is perhaps easy to understand, and contains many important facts that can be very serious. Rivoli uses a simple concept to tell the story of globalization of free trade in the textile industry. The story began with an anti-globalization protests, the demonstrators felt that large enterprise, globalization, the IMF and the WTO are villains, mercilessly destroy the dignity and livelihoods of the workers around world. Recall back to 1999, one young female demonstrator asked “Who made your shirt?...Was it a child in Vietnam, chained to a sewing machine without food or water...she is forced to work 90 hours each week, without overtime pay?” This statement illustrates that free trade is considered to be inhumanity. For this reason, anti-globalization activists deemed that free trade creates an atmosphere with no concern for human rights, destruction to the environment and of good pay jobs which later enters into endless arguments. However, Rivoli does successfully counter the arguments against free trade and globalization by illuminate the world that formed her t-shirt and to shed light on globalization.
Inspired to explore the lowly T-shirt by an anti-WTO rally, Rivoli started her journey from the cotton industry, the clothing manufacture, and the used-clothing trade to examine the politics, economics, ethics, and history of modern business and globalization. With that in mind, Rivoli seems more interested in violations of free trade than in violations of human rights. She feels that globali...
... middle of paper ...
...ely new market. That is the small entrepreneurial clothing market in Africa. When those used clothes enter Africa, these clothes will be able to get a second chance of life. Furthermore, Rivoli declares that “The U.S. textile recycling industry consists of thousands of small family business.” Most of the world's poorest countries in Africa, and yet in a sustainable way to benefit from globalization.
All the examples and information outlined that free trade and globalization helps everybody who attempts to get away from the agricultural and impoverishment life. Even though that the workers in the industrial area had a harsh life, but it can provide them chances to seek for their freedom and to get out of plight. Anti-globalization activists who thinks that global trade is bad for the world and environment should not ignore the beneficial effects from globalization.
In this chapter of Naked Economics, by Charles Wheelan, he describes many aspects of trade. It begins by showing the capabilities of trade and how it affects everyone as a whole. It makes it so that everyone is better off than normal. To put it into perspective, he put the image in your head of how hard your life would be without trade, you would have to make your own clothes, find a way to get/make your own food, make your own car, etc... After showing some of the advantages to trade, he applies it to a global persona and begins to introduce his opinion on how global trade (globalization) makes us richer. One of the key explanations of this point is that trade frees up time in our busy schedule, therefore allowing us to use that freed up
The 19th century set the stage for different policies that lead to the extending of America’s power, which is defined as imperialism. Imperialism started for different reasons like the Americans wanting the U.S. to expand or explore the unknown land, or even some feared existing resources in U.S. might eventually dry up. The reason imperialism started doesn’t really matter, but more of what it caused. Imperialism lead to Cuban assistance, the addition of Hawaii and Alaska to America, and Yellow Journalism.
When you go to the mall to pick up a pair of jeans or a shirt, do you think about where they came from? How they were made? Who made them? Most consumers are unaware of where their clothes are coming from. All the consumer is responsible for is buying the clothing from the store and most likely have little to no knowledge about how it was manufactured, transported, or even who made the clothing item and the amount of intensive labor that went into producing it (Timmerman, 3). In my paper, I will utilize the book Where Am I Wearing? by Kelsey Timmerman and the textbook Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by Kenneth J. Guest to examine globalization in the context of the clothing industry.
Bob Jeffcott supports the effort of workers of the global supply chains in order to win improved wages and good working conditions and a better quality of life of those who work on sweatshops. He mentions and describes in detail how the conditions of the sweatshops are and how the people working in them are forced to long working hours for little money. He makes the question, “we think we can end sweatshops abuses by just changing our individual buying habits?” referring to we can’t end the abuses that those women have by just stopping of buying their products because those women still have to work those long hours because other people are buying their product for less pay or less money. We can’t control and tell what you can buy or what you can’t because that’s up to the person...
In Packer’s essay, the used clothes are selling in a higher price in Uganda than they were bought from the Thrift Shop, and that is where the profits coming from. Natelie L. Hoang from Claremont College pointed out that used clothing is increasingly becoming the major source of garments in many African nations. In Uganda in particular, they account for 81% of the country’s total clothing purchases. BBC News stated that the imported clothes are so cheap that the local textiles factories and self-employed tailors can't compete, so they either close down or don't do as well as they could. Therefore, the local government tries to ban second-hand clothes, because they want to give a boost to local manufacturing, and help the
"We cannot sit huddled within our own borders and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. Such a policy would defeat even its own end; for as the nations grow to have ever wider and wider interests, and are brought into closer and closer contact, if we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval and commercial supremacy, we must build up our Dower without our own borders." 1899, Theodore roosevelt his book, The Strenuous Life.
...d up in Salvation Army bins. The U.S. textile recycling industry enables Africans to dress well for very little money. In 2003, used clothing was by far America’s largest export to Tanzania, and it ranked fourth worldwide as a customer for America’s castoffs, with competition from countries such as Beijing, and the Republic of the Congo.”
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.
Globalization and industrialization contribute to the existence of sweatshops, which are where garments are made cheaply, because they are moving production and consumption of those cheap goods. Industrialization has enabled for global distribution, to exchange those goods around the world. They can also set apart the circumstances of consumption and production, which Western countries as mass consumers, are protected from of producers in less developed countries. These factories are usually located in less developed countries and face worker exploitation and changes in social structures. Technological innovation allows for machines to take the place of workers and do all the dirty work instead of workers doing hours of hard work by hand.
In today’s increasingly smaller world, free trade and globalization have become inevitable parts of our lives. The growing importance of free trade and globalization have undoubtedly impacted the existence and extent of conflicts between nations. Free trade is defined by Mankiw (2015) as “the unrestricted purchase and sale of goods and services between countries without the imposition of constraints such as tariffs, duties and quotas.” The economic argument for free trade is that nations that engage in it will be able to produce and consume more due to the principles of absolute and comparative advantage. More recently, arguments in favor of free trade have emerged not
Despite the international system being anarchical, it is not in a state of total chaos due to a number of significant factors such as those above. It is obvious that the current international system is highly influenced by many significant factors and some are more prominent than others. With the continued existence of international anarchy it is up to the States and the International Organisations to continue to make the decisions that are in their own best interest and to maintain order and an ever-improving way of life.
Loss of group identity and individualism because globalization promotes a western ideal of individualism. This advocate a homogeneous set of values.
If there is an increase in the rate of global warming it will have serval effects on us humans and animals in fact the whole environment will be effected by it for example rise in the sea level which will cause lots of marine animals to die due to their loss in their food source or increase in the greenhouse gas concentration which will Increase Earth's average temperature, Reduce ice and snow cover which will cause the polar animals to die because of the change in temperature, as well as permafrost, Increase the acidity of the oceans which will make the water ph unsuitable for the marine life.
Globalization affects this world and the people of this world in many ways. It is the idea of making the entire world like a single country.
Proponents have a strong belief in free markets and limited governments intervention. According to Preble (2010), globalization has led to the creation of jobs, higher living standards and a higher variety of goods available to consumers. International trade is one of the driving forces behind globalization. Countries specialize in specific goods wherein it has a comparative advantage. This results in a higher efficiency and productivity and ultimately leading to an improvement of the living standards. As a consequence, export increases. Hereto, more jobs are created, a higher variety of goods are available and international competition has increased. This results in lower prices, keeping the inflation in check (Preble, 2010). Furthermore, Preble (2010) states that the increase of trade in goods and services, foreign direct investment and cross-border investment have been important for the success of globalization. Other important benefits, mentioned by the proponents of globalization, are the promotion of information exchange and high understanding of a variety of cultures. Globalization has led to a world where “democracy has triumph over autocracy” (BBC News, 2000, as stated in Preble, 2010, p. 334).