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  You need to visit the “Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt” website, watch the following videos, and read the accompanying articles in order to complete this case study. .

  1. Cotton: In this video we are shown a series of technological innovations that have allowed the United States to maintain a comparative advantage in producing cotton. We learn that since the 1950s cotton yields (the amount of cotton that can be harvested from a single acre) have almost tripled. This means that a farmer today is able to get three times as much cotton from the same land that her grandfather worked only 65 years ago. Identify three technological innovations that made this possible and explain why they were so important. (150 words)

  
  2. Machines: The industrial revolution that began in Britain took spinning and weaving that was previously done by hand in the household into factories. In many ways, the machines that we see in this video are the products of more than 200 years of engineering. Notice in this video how few people are actually present in the factory.

•  Explain why it would be an oversimplification to say that machines and technology destroy jobs. (200 words)

  
  3. People: Factories and can be dangerous places especially with large machines at work. Look at the pictures in the supporting article that show side-by-side workers in the United States in the early 1900s and workers in Indonesia and Bangladesh today. These are people who are half-a-world away and a century apart but they are living the same lives. Notice the last picture that depicts protests and labor movements in both countries. As the article explains, in 1911 a fire in Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York killed over 100 workers and recently a factory building in Bangladesh collapsed killing more than 1,000 workers. Both events spurred protests and reforms to improve wages and working conditions. This video ends with the narrator explaining that after speaking with labor activists and factory owners that the impact of the t-shirts is far reaching and complicated.

•  Why do you think both groups agree that the worst possible outcome would be for the garment industry to leave Bangladesh all together? (200 words)

  
  4. Boxes: Take a look at the cost breakdown of the t-shirt. Notice that the cost of shipping the t-shirts from Bangladesh via truck, trains, and trucks is only 10 cents. In the opening, the narrator describes the shipping container as the “unsung innovation that makes the global economy possible”.

•  Explain what he means by that statement. (150 words)

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