07/23
2008
The USA is a pucker and China is a hemorrhoid
I had someone email me today asking about where our clothes come from. Here’s the short answer: 97% come from outside of the U.S., mostly from China.
And here’s that answer visually, courtesy of worldmapper:
The map is accompanied with this interesting tid bit:
Of all earnings from international trade, 7% is earned from clothing exports.
In contrast to this effect of economic globalization to do with ethics of global economics, there is the problem also of less employment -I like the brief but relevant arguments on this issue raised in the following essay on economic globlisation:
http://www.geocities.com/anil.ari_global/index.html
Jobs aren’t easy to come by in places like Bangladesh and Cambodia, true. But I don’t think we should use this to clear our conscience.
Workers need these jobs, but they could be treated and paid better.