Reading Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy

 Part 1 of The Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy starts with the beginnings of how a t-shirt is made. Rivoli travels to a cotton farm in Texas to see where the cotton is grown that is then later turned into the t-shirt. This turns into a discussion as to why the U.S. has led the cotton industry for so long. The main reasons why the U.S. has managed this according to Rivoli are slave labor, subsidies, and governance. The U.S. used slave labor as a way to avoid market risks and was the reason they could produce enough cotton to meet British demand, subsidies after slave labor helped to keep cotton farmers income high to allow them to keep farming, and the way other countries governed allowed for the U.S. to take the role as the world's main cotton supplier instead of someone else.

Part 2 of the book focuses on what happens to that cotton when it is sold and taken to China. Rivoli also talks a lot about China in general, the politics, and the secrecy they have over what they do. The race to the bottom talks a lot about how different countries are trying to buy and sell the products for as cheap as humanly possible in less and less ethical ways. Then Rivoli covers the poor working conditions in Chinese factories and how China makes working there so desirable for its citizens. I think this book is very interesting and I enjoy how Rivoli shares the differences between when she wrote the first edition of the book compared to the most recent edition. I can't wait to read the epilogue to get more information about the biggest changes between now and then. I wish she had more plans to continue editing it because I would love to revisit this topic in ten years and see what's happening now with seemingly China overtaking the U.S. in many ways.