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| Let’s face it – clothes are cheap. As a teen in the United States, you can save up your allowance, your paychecks, and your birthday money and buy yourself those Abercrombie jeans you’ve always wanted. Why are things so inexpensive? One word – China. Whether you walk down an aisle in Walmart or run your fingers along stacks of H&M clothes, you will likely feel and see products made in China. Most companies that design clothing and other products like toys or even food items that need manufacturing or processing have their goods made in China. Why China? Three simple reasons… First, Chinese companies pay their employees very low wages. An employee in China earns one-third of what an |
| Second, Chinese manufacturers make important investments in educating and training employees. The extra training and education makes the Chinese more productive while still making less money than a worker in the United States. Companies like IBM and Microsoft will use the trained, but inexpensive workers to do not only their manufacturing, but their research on new computer technologies as well. Third, in January 2005, China and the United States changed the rules regarding how many goods (like clothes) Chinese companies can sell to the United States. Essentially, there are no laws limiting the amount of textiles and clothes that will be made in Chinese factories and shipped to the United States. So, companies like |
| The Gap and Nike import more clothes for lower prices, making prices even lower for teens. (Or we could say…) Now, companies like The Gap and Nike can important larger amounts of clothes for even smaller prices. Even with the popularity of low-cost Chinese products, more and more Americans are making a distinct effort to avoid products made in China because of recent safety scares with toys, pet food and even household products like toothpaste. The New York Times reported that China manufactured all of the 24 different toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States as of June 2007. When one family recently went to the mall, they did a little experiment and tried to buy products that were not made in China. According to Dirk Lammers, “The quest began in the J.C. Penney shoe department. We soon found out this was going to be no easy task: Adidas, made in China; Sketchers, made in China; Reebok, made in China or Indonesia.” So next time you’re cruising the aisles of your local mall eyeing that new Coach handbag, you may find that it’s highly likely that the bag was made in China. |
| Like, Why is Everything Made in China? by: Laura McCloskey |
| employee in Mexico makes. The cost of employing a worker in China is only 5% of the cost of an employee in Japan and the U.S. This means when companies like H&M make their clothing in China, they spend less money on making the clothing, and can then sell the clothing for less to you, the teen consumer. |
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