We have become a nation of consumers. Demanding consumers. We want a lot and we want it cheap. Unfortunately, cheap comes at a cost. A cost that goes to people miles away, people we don’t know and most of us are likely never to meet. People working in factories located in China, Bangladesh, the Philippines and more. Any clothing tag will tell you where it came from, but it won't tell you the name or age of the person who made it. It won’t tell you that those people make less money every year than the average person living in the US makes in a month. How have clothing factories affected the quality of life for these people? How are consumers effecting the lives of these people?
When we buy clothing at the store, a good chunk of the cost goes towards producing the materials. The most common material used for clothing is cotton. In the U.S. there are fourteen major cotton growing states. These states form a region along the bottom half of the U.S. known as the Cotton Belt and have three things in common: lots of sunshine, water and fertile soil (Cotton’s Journey). Critical for growing a good cotton crop. Although cotton is also largely grown in China, India and Pakistan, cotton grown in the US has become the most desirable in the world. This is because cotton grown in the US in never touched by human hands. Cotton farmers will pay top dollar for the best picking machines. Mississippi cotton farmer, Bowen Flowers, bought five John Deere 7760 pickers in 2013 and they cost him about $600,000 each (NPR apps). These high end cotton pickers have programmable routs and are basically self-driving. However, one person sits in the cabin as the picker makes its rounds and monitors the operation. Since machines do all the picking, cotton is n...
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...t-shirt modifier. People cut and clip and sew shirts together to create new shirts. Shirts that will go on to experience a second life.
The life cycle of clothing has really surprised me, in more ways than I thought it would. The vast involvement of so many people, to produce one product that passes through dozens if not hundreds of hands. From the cotton, to the fabric, to factory workers in Bangladesh. Growing up I only ever heard really awful things about factories in other countries and although the situation is far from ideal, stories like Minu’s or Mukhta’s make it seem like things are progressing it the right direction. Bangladesh might have the worlds lowest wages, but I think they also have 4 million of the hardest working people. People who will continue to push their economy forward in the future. As consumers we are a huge part of that driving force.
Look down at the clothes you're wearing right now, chances are almost every single thing you are currently wearing was made in a sweatshop. It is estimated that between 50-75% of all garments are made under sweatshop like conditions. Designers and companies get 2nd party contractors to hire people to work in these factories, this is a tool to make them not responsible for the horrendous conditions. They get away with it by saying they are providing jobs for people in 3rd world countries so its okay, but in reality they are making their lives even worse. These companies and designers only care about their bank accounts so if they can exploit poor, young people from poverty stricken countries they surely will, and they do. A sweatshop is a factory
The movie “Cotton Road” is about the way American grown cotton that is sold to China and then made into products that are sold back to America for the publics use. The movie also shares the perspectives of multiple people involve in the “Cotton Road” from the growing of the cotton to the transportation to China, and the transformation from raw cotton to clothing products. The cotton is grown on a farm in South Carolina, and there are perspectives given of that farm owner and the main farm worker. When in China there are perspectives given from dock employees, transporters and cotton factory works such as the cook, fabric imperfection checker, and main clothing maker. I was shocked to see what happens and the hardships that occur in this
In China, Kelsey Timmerman spent time with a couple who worked at the Teva factory, traveled to the countryside to meet the couple’s son, insert name, who hasn’t seen his parents in three years due to his parents working long hours and it being expensive to take a train ride. In the US, the author visited one of a few clothing factories in the US to talk to the workers about his shorts, and the decrease of American garment factories. Timmerman wants the consumer to be more engaged and more thoughtful when mindlessly buying clothes. By researching how well the brands you want to buy from monitor their factories and what their code of ethics details, you can make a sound decision on if this is where you would want to buy your clothes. The author writes about brands that improve employers lives like SoleRebels, a shoe company who employs workers and gives them health insurance, school funds for their children, and six months of maternity leave. Brands like soleRebels that give workers benefits most factory workers have never even heard of help improve the lives of garment workers and future generations. From reading this book, Timmerman wants us to be more educated about the lives of garment workers, bridge the gap between consumers and manufacturers, and be a more engaged and mindful consumer when purchasing our
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.
the case in the textile industry, having before created most of the textiles in smaller quantities in the home
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.
Cotton is bountiful throughout the planet. The crop is a cheap harvest, an easy craft, and a profitable one at that. The foundation of this crop dates back into the rise of civilizations to times of civil war, or even in times where cotton is sold frequently day by day. It has been cultivated to be one of the world’s most beneficial commodities known.
On April 24 2013, a building housing several garment factories collapsed in the capital of Bangladesh, leading to the deaths of more than 1,100 textile workers. These factories supplied clothing for many western retailers, such as Walmart, H&M, Gap and others. Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter, depending on low wages. "Sweatshop" sometimes is not enough to describe the working conditions of labor in less developed areas. In Bangladesh, clothing enterprises are as frightening as ruins and fires.
Simply because these things happen does not mean that the consumer cannot prevent or take steps to minimize the impact. One of the easiest ways to minimize the impact of cheap labor is to donate money to one of several organizations that help kids and people that work in factories to get better life. Another way to lessen the impact that cheap labor has on people is to do a little research on companies that do and do not outsource their labor to third world countries it is something that can take you an hour or two, at the end of the day one child has to make one less garment for the supply
While the price of cotton textiles decreased by 90%, the output had grown to cover the demand at affordable prices. Now, cotton will be gotten from Brazil, Egypt, southern United Sates and all this meant a...
I hope to use this article in essay to support the policy section of my claim. Finding solutions to fast fashion is one of the harder topics to write about, and this article gives good insight to how I can shape the policy portion of my claim. I will bring up the idea of organic cotton, and other sustainable fiber plants, as a way consumers can shop more ethically. This article has broaden my perspective to possible solutions of fast fashion.
1. What is the difference between a. and a. From an economic perspective, is the shift to a free trade regime in the textile industry good for Bangladesh? The shift to a free trade regime in the textile industry was good for Bangladesh. Bangladesh prospered when other economies weren't doing so well. The textile industry greatly increased, causing it to become a major reason as to why the economy has continued to increase.
From 2005 the textile segment has been made up of 2 companies, transforming raw materials into fabrics, from spinning to finishing and ennobling. Handicraft product quality and technological research development characterize this business segment which works with internationally recognized names of the apparel and fashion industry.
The film “The True Cost” is a documentary about fast-fashion and shows us different interviews with different people who work in the fashion industry. The film shows us the “behind the scenes” of exactly how our clothes are produced so quickly and sold to us at the lowest prices possible. The documentary allows us to see what lives and working conditions; many of the sweatshop factory workers, who make our clothes; have to face. We learn in the movie that consumers are demanding more, cheaper clothing all the time, this then results in businesses needing to reduce expenses to reduce their prices, therefor the labour workers in many factories are being exploited and forced to work in very bad working conditions for long hours, with little pay.
The selling of secondhand clothing or ‘oboni wawu ’ in Ghana has only negative affected the country. Employment in textile and clothing has fallen by 80% between 1975 and the 2000s (Rodgers,2015). It seems strange that the selling of secondhand clothing can have such an effect on a country 's economy. Here in the U.S, everyone has bought secondhand clothing but at the same time the buying for the clothing hasn’t put a dent in the economy. It is almost parallel to what happened in the past, jobs disappeared in order find cheaper ways of making things. In the US, many clothing factories shut down or moved overseas leaving many unemployed and in Africa markets are selling used clothing in the effect many jobs have been lost in the clothing industry. The biggest difference, the clothing that we buy is brand new and no one has worn it whereas in Africa, they are buying the ratty, unwanted used clothing. "The long-term effect is that countries such as Malawi or Mozambique or Zambia can 't really establish or protect their own clothing industries if they are importing second-hand goods," says Andrew Brooks from King’s College (Kermeliotis,2013). The problem is there isn’t a way for the companies to compete with the second-hand trade especially if they come in at such a high volume and are sold cheaper. In order to protect their nation’s textile industries many African countries have banned the import of second hand clothing (Kermeliotis,2013). The clothing industries aren’t able to compete with the used clothing market because it is sold for