RSS 2.0 FeedThe True Cost Of Protectionism
by Doug MataconisWe are often told by Lou Dobbs and the other members of the anti-free trade crowd that we need to “buy American” in order to protect domestic industry. Over at Wired, Paul Adams writes about a someone who took this logic to its ultamite extreme and tried to make a men’s suit made entirely of labor material available within 100 miles of her home:
PHILADELPHIA — When educator and designer Kelly Cobb decided to make a man’s suit only from materials produced within 100 miles of her home, she knew it would be a challenge. But Cobb’s locally made suit turned into a exhausting task. The suit took a team of 20 artisans several months to produce — 500 man-hours of work in total — and the finished product wears its rustic origins on its sleeve.
“It was a huge undertaking, assembled on half a shoestring,” Cobb said at the suit’s unveiling one recent afternoon at Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art.
“Every piece of the suit took three to five pairs of hands to make,” Cobb added. “Every garment you wear took three to five pairs of hands to make too, but you don’t know whose hands or where.”
Cobb’s suit (see photo gallery) is a demonstration of the massive manufacturing power of the global economy. Industrial processes and cheap foreign labor belie the tremendous resources that go into garments as simple as a T-shirt.
500 man-hours to produce a truly crappy version of something that, thanks to international trade and the global economy, you can buy off the rack at Macy’s for under $ 300. That’s the kind of world we’d live in if Lou Dobbs had his way.
H/T: Lew Rockwell
Whats truly galling to me, is that the people involved in this actually think they accomplished something, other than leftist masturbation.
Comment by Chris — April 3, 2007 @ 1:29 amI don’t understand, once you have the thread and fabric, some one who sews could make the suit in three days. In the Philadelphia area the are still machines, that will weave fabric. The whole idea is a non-started, proves nothing.
Comment by VRB — April 3, 2007 @ 7:56 pmMeant non-starter. Should say proves only that is was an art project, not a textile one or anything about the global economy.
Comment by VRB — April 3, 2007 @ 8:00 pm