We have become a nation of consumers. Demanding consumers. We want a lot of it and we want it cheap. Unfortunately, cheapness comes at a price. A cost that falls on people miles away, people we don't know and most of us will probably never meet. People working in factories located in China, Bangladesh, the Philippines and elsewhere. Any clothing label will tell you where it came from, but it won't tell you the name or age of the person who made it. It won't tell you that these people make less money each year than the average person living in the United States makes in a month. How have garment factories affected the quality of life of these people? How do consumers affect these people's lives? When we buy clothes from the store, a good portion of the cost goes into producing the materials. The most commonly used material for clothing is cotton. In the United States, there are fourteen major cotton-producing states. These states form a region in the lower half of the United States known as the Cotton Belt, and have three things in common: lots of sun, water, and fertile soil (Cotton's Journey). Essential for obtaining a good cotton harvest. Although cotton is also widely grown in China, India, and Pakistan, that grown in the United States has become the most sought after in the world. Indeed, cotton grown in the United States has never been touched by human hands. Cotton farmers will pay top dollar for the best picking machines. Mississippi cotton grower Bowen Flowers purchased five John Deere 7760 pickers in 2013 and they cost it about $600,000 each (NPR apps). These high-end cotton pickers have programmable routes and are essentially autonomous. However, one person sits in the cabin while the picker makes his rounds and monitors the operations. Since machines do all the picking, cotton is not...... middle of paper......t-shirt modifier. People cut, cut and sew shirts together to create new shirts. Shirts that will have a second life. The life cycle of clothing really surprised me, more than I expected. The vast involvement of so many people to make a product that passes through dozens, if not hundreds, of hands. From cotton to fabric to factory workers in Bangladesh. Growing up, I only heard truly horrible things about factories in other countries and even though the situation is far from ideal, stories like Minu's or Mukhta's make it seem like things are moving forward in the right direction. Bangladesh may have the lowest wages in the world, but I think it also has 4 million of the hardest working people. People who will continue to drive their economy forward into the future. As consumers, we are a big part of this driving force.