US Dominance In The Cotton Industry Essay

The U.S.’s continued dominance in the cotton industry. According to Rivoli, in the book The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, there were several contributing factors that enabled the U.S. to dominate in the cotton industry. She stresses that the U.S. has a long history in the cotton industry. Not all of the methods that were used in the past were pretty, but they were effective. Rivoli believes that the U.S. began with a pretty large advantage over many countries when it came to the cotton industry because of its involvement in slavery. Slavery is probably one of the most immoral moments in U.S. history, however Rivoli believes that it contributed to most of the early success of the cotton industry. “Slavery was the first significant American ‘public policy’ that served to protect cotton growers from the perils of operating in a competitive market” (11). Slavery was a good source of cheap labor and it allowed the U.S. to profit more than other countries.

This is how tenant farming was founded. This was legal, but it was only a tiny bit better than slavery; it was still not the best option. After tenant farming was the Bracero Program which, “ allowed Mexican labor to enter the United States for short periods to work in agriculture” (32). Mexican workers did their jobs efficiently for an extremely cheap price. American farm owners wanted these Mexican laborers, “Mexican farm labor, according to the growers, was much better than white labor which was ‘lazy and draggy-like,’ or black labor which exhibited ‘too much independence’” (32). During World War II, American farmers needed these workers to help them win the war. While Americans were going to battle, these Mexican laborers filled their low wage jobs on the farms. Mexican labor helped the U.S. continue to dominate because it was cheap, efficient, and