3Back at the Reinsch FarmToday, Lubbock, Texas, is indeed the ‘‘cottonest city in the world,’’ and the surrounding farmland is the leading birthplace of the world's T-shirts. Lubbock has the world's largest cotton cooperative and the world's largest cottonseed oil mill, and the region produces nearly 30 percent of American cotton. Texas Tech University, on the west side of town, performs some of the most advanced cotton research in the world. And Lubbock is an international cotton center. A majority of the region's cotton is exported: loaded onto trucks and trains in Lubbock, and bound for ports on every U.S. coast. And at the bottom of this successful chain are neither plantations nor sharecroppers nor company towns nor even family farms, but people like Nelson and Ruth Reinsch.1 Show
No single factor explains the success that cotton farmers in west Texas have had in competing in international markets. The growers are embedded in a web of institutions that help them to continue their tradition of shifting market risks away from themselves, and they continue to win as much by limiting competition as by competing. Texas cotton farmers have solved, once and for all, the age-old labor market risk problem associated with cotton production, creatively applying mechanization, scientific research, and public policy to the challenge. These producers were also leaders in the development of the modern agricultural cooperative, a brilliantly simple organizational form that allows cotton farmers ... The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy – Chapter SummariesPART 1: King Cotton: How America has Dominated the Global CottonIndustry for 200 YearsCH. 1: Reinsch Cotton Farm, Smyer, TexasWhile the U.S. dominance of the cotton industry cannot be entirelyexplained from government subsidies, “For 200 years, U.S. farmers havehad in place an evolving set of public policies that allow them to mitigate theimportant competitive risks inherent in the business of growing and sellingcotton” (7; 3-8).CH. 2: The History of American Cotton: Winning by Ducking the LaborMarketsThe first such policy was slavery (11-15). Eli Whitney’s cotton gin(15-17). Other countries lacked the property rights and incentive structuresneeded to respond to the spectacular growth in demand for cotton (17-19).When slavery ended, sharecropping ensured a labor supply (19-22). In Texasand Oklahoma, the company town served the same function (22-24).*virtuous circleCH. 3: Back at the Reinsch Farm: All God’s Dangers Ain’t the SubsidiesWest Texas cotton embraced tractors from mid-1920s on (25-30).“The Bracero program, the product of political influence, enabled cottonfarmers to avoid competitive markets” (31; 30-32). In the early 1930s theNew Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Act introduced price supports (32-34).Mechanical cotton picking, and later defoliants arrived, with the help ofgovernment sponsored research after WWII (34-38). USDA and universityscientists mechanized other jobs away (39-40). Gin co-ops (40-41).Byproducts (cottonseed oil) (46-48). U.S. law provides protection againstevery “virtually every business risk,” including subsidies (49-52). TheAmerican cotton farmer “is embedded in a system that protects and enricheshim, cotton farmers in West Africa are embedded in a system that exposesand impoverishes them” (54; 52-57).CH. 4:-Mainly about the subsidies that cotton farmers receive from the government.-A subsidy is money that the government gives to farmers to assist them ortax breaks so farmers will want to continue to do their job. These subsidiesare the reason that the United States is the main cotton producer. 4 min read ⌚ An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World TradeHave you ever wondered where the t-shirt you’re currently wearing came from? It’s time to find out! And there’s no better way to do that than reading Pietra Rivoli’s “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.” About Pietra RivoliPietra Rivoli  “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy Summary”In 1999, Pietra Rivoli, a Georgetown University professor and economist, attended an anti-globalization rally. “Who made your T-shirt?” – a young woman asked the crowd, before listing numerous labor abuses happening worldwide as you read this. Pietra Rivoli did something even better – she started a step-by-step journey to discover the origin of the t-shirt she was wearing at the moment. What she ended up with was a book about globalization. And, contrary to her initial belief, a book-length study about how avoiding market forces created the textile industry. In addition to contributing to the suffering of millions of innocent people. Visualized, Rivoli’s journey looks something like this. And we’re following both her footsteps and conclusions from start to finish. With few necessary historical digressions. Rivoli bought her T-shirt at a Walgreen’s drugstore in Florida. She checked the label and phoned the Sherry Manufacturing Company. Its president, Gary Sandler, introduced Rivoli to Patrick Xu, his main supplier. You can guess by the name that he was from China. However, when Rivoli met him in Washington and asked him where they got the cotton from, he replied “Texas.” And as Rivoli soon discovered, most of the T-shirts today start there. More precisely, in Lubbock, the largest cotton-growing region of the world. But how did that happen? Well, you can guess most of the historical digression. Unsurprisingly, it has a lot to do with human exploitation. And it starts in the 18th century, when the British introduced mechanization in the textile industry. Soon, textile became its chief industry – and a national secret. However, a certain Francis Cabot Lowell memorized the design of the power loom and brought it into the United States. And then Eli Whitney invented the “cotton gin” which made “upland cotton” profitable, the US a textile powerhouse, and, of course, slavery an economically sound premise. Planters started adopting several practices to make sure none of their slaves would develop a case of drapetomania. They blocked their public education and made sure they are poor enough to have no other option but working for them 24/7. Talking about centuries of injustice! And if you think that something changed in the 20th century – then, you’re right. But, you’re almost definitely wrong on what that “something” is. A hint: it’s the people. Namely, Second World War gave Texas cotton laborers an opportunity to flee the farms, by enlisting for the U.S. military forces. However, the planters made an agreement with the U.S. government to import Mexican workers. And the Bracero program lasted well into the 1960s. Of course, the cotton from Texas is turned into T-shirts somewhere in China by people living in basically the same gruesome conditions. Slavery, the Bracero program, and Chinese regulatory policies have really helped the textile industry. But, they haven’t helped the people. In Rivoli’s opinion, free market would have done exactly that. Because, once Rivoli discarded her T-shirt, she found out that it was exported as a second-hand clothing item to Tanzania. There Rivoli finally found an open market. Which worked better than the ones in the developed economies of the world. And that’s Rivoli’s solution: bring the free market to the U.S. And make it a world practice. For everybody’s benefit. Key Lessons from “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy”1. A T-Shirt Journey Is a Story About Economy and
Globalization A T-Shirt Journey Is a Story About Economy and GlobalizationIn 1999, Pietra Rivoli attended an anti-globalization gathering. She heard one of the young women present in the crowd shout: “Who made your T-shirt?” That inspired her to try and scrutinize all aspects of the question. And “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” is her book-length answer. The Textile Industry Profited from Unethical BehaviorThe most alarming thing she discovered is that, in the case of the textile industry, free market has never been part of the equation. In Texas, from where most of the world’s cotton originates, slavery and the import of Mexican workers through the Bracero program was used to avoid the free market. In China, it’s population controls which do the trick. The sad thing is – that they all actually work. Freeing the Market Means Freeing the PeopleHowever, if something unethical works, it doesn’t mean that we should just sit back and reap the benefits. After all, rape and genocide are, strictly evolutionary speaking, very attractive ideas. The same is true for slavery. However, this doesn’t mean these are ethically justified policies. Of course, they are not. And Milton Friedman argued convincingly back in 1960 that human freedom comes from economic freedom. So, free the market – free the people! Like this summary? We’d Like to invite you to download our free 12 min app, for more amazing summaries and audiobooks. “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” QuotesThis book is the story of the people, politics and markets that created my cotton T-shirt. It is a story about globalization. Click To Tweet For over 200 years, the United States has been the undisputed leader in the global cotton industry… and other countries, particularly poor ones, have little chance of catching up. Click To Tweet Remarkably, U.S. government subsidies under the cotton programs – approximately $4 billion in 2000 – exceed the entire GNP of a number of the world’s poorest cotton-producing countries. Click To Tweet The Chinese government controls (a factory worker’s) life in ways that are bad for China’s human rights record, but very good for the production of T-shirts. Click To Tweet Since completing my travels, I have come to believe in a moral case for trade that is even more compelling to me than the economic case. Click To TweetLearn more and more, in the speed that the world demands. |
The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy chapter 3 summary
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