Economic Geography 161 - Final Exam: The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli

How did/does the American cotton industry avoid risk?

Slavery, immigrants, sweatshops, low-paid workers

Where is most US cotton produced?

Lubbock, Texas

Why did the textile industry in Great Britain succeed over its then-competitors China and India?

Industrial Revolution; harsh working conditions for employees

Who is Eli Whitney?

Inventor of the cotton gin, a machine that separated seeds from the cotton.

According to the author, why is the American cotton industry so successful?

Slavery, sharecropping, subsidies, geographic concentration

What is the Chinese hukou system?

Determines where Chinese workers live

Stable food

Limiting population of urban areas

Rural _________

Limits worker's life

What is the 'race to the bottom'? Why does the author believe that the anti-globalization cries to stop the 'race to the bottom' are nonsensical?

Attempt to find the lowest wages and the cries are nonsensical because people's lives revolve around the cotton industry.

Tariff

a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports

Quota

a limited quantity of a particular product that under official controls can be produced, exported, or imported.

Subsidy

a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

In general, how do economists and the general public view free trade/globalization differently?

Economists judge policies on effects on national wealth and income or "global welfare"

General Public suspicions with international trade; more good more cheaply but with the concern of negative influences on civil society

Where is most US textile production located?

South Carolina

Why is female labor so prominent in the (history of) textile industry?

Women were mistreated; paid low; less trouble; domestic

Did most of the unwanted labor

What happens to a t-shirt after it is donated to a charity/ thrift shop? Note: There are multiple answers.

Salvation Army → Goodwill → Trans-Americas Trading Company

Clothing is sorted into categories

Clothing used in all way; not wasted

Sent to Africa → Mitumba

What is Mitumba? Who buys these items and how do they feel about it?

African term for clothing thrown away by Americans and Europeans

Poor people from African communities buy this clothing

Some think the clothing is hip and cool; Others find the clothing a disgrace to their culture because it is "the white lands leftovers"

Everyone usually gives in to wearing Mitumba and they pick out the snowflakes from the Manzese Market