The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy by Pietra Rivoli, Ph.D Essay

The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy by Pietra Rivoli, Ph.D - Essay Example In the preface, the author guides to the preview of the protests against cotton materials. The protests attribute the cotton industry to abuse of human rights. Protesters called backlash in the book refuse to buy t-shirts made from cotton because of the perception that cotton industry involves in child labor, human trafficking, unfair employment terms, and unsustainable compensations. The student protesters joined other human rights activists to campaign against global trade conferences. The reasons for the oppositions were that globalization is the reason behind maltreatment of workers in cotton and other industries. In the book, Pietra Rivoli seems to want to dismiss or challenge the idea that anti-cotton protesters have towards globalization and international trade. Majority of the impactful protesters are Americans who seem to curse the way the global cotton industry operates to make t-shirts available. To the protesters, before the t-shirt they buy reaches the market, it passes through child labor, underpaid workers, and poor working conditions (Rivoli VI). However, the book acknowledges that the success of the American cotton industry partly depends on the cheap labor obtained through slavery. Cotton growing is a big economic and agricultural activity in the Southern frontier. Wealthy people rank according to the hectors of cotton farm owned and the quantity of cotton possible harvested from the farms. The significance of the US cotton industry is comparable to the Swiss pharmaceutical industry, Japanese automaker industry, and the Germany chemical industry. Unfavorable climatic conditions in the industrialized countries make it hard to produce cotton in large quantities. It is for the reason that America does not have a serious competition that would come from producers of similar status (Rivoli 4). This state leaves America to compete some of the