The start of the book focuses on the cotton farmers down in Texas, in which the US is surprisingly the global leaders in the cotton industry. In Texas, the farmers get lots of subsidies, more than the GDP of other small cotton-picking countries. This challenges the idea of a "free market", since unlike those poorer countries, the US farmers have a country with working government and policies which help support their buisness. Unfortunatly, this power with policies and governement assistance can go back to the time of slave labor being used on these plantations.
Not just Texas is mentioned, but also China. After the cotton is farmed in Texas, it is sent to China to make the shirt. The reason it is sent to China and not somewhere in the US is because of the cheap, usually explotative labor in China creating low production costs for companies. Cheap labor is normalized, and even seen as an opportunity in China, as many are living in poverty and these jobs give them needed income. This need for low prices and cheap options brings lots of downsides, hurting small countries, causing hazardous work enviorments, and giving advantages to certain groups. While we love spending less money, many things happen behind the scenes that we turn our eyes from to avoid thinking about.
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