Really...a $5.25 shirt?

I've been thinking about clothes lately...since we have to buy them from time to time. It brought to mind some thoughts I have about cheap clothes. Is it really possible to buy a t-shirt for under say...$15 and maintain Christian ethics?

Walmart has a Hanes Beefy Tee shirt (set of 2) for $10.49 or $5.245 each. It's a 100 percent cotton shirt for men's wear. This is my case for this argument...a $5.25 shirt.

So let's see here: logic dictates that a farmer has to buy or rent some land. Then he has to buy some cotton seeds, then he has to plant them. Then he has to water them, fertilize them, weed the cotton crop and when they bloom and dry on the plant, he has to pick them. A post from this site states it takes about 3 pounds of cotton to make one tee shirt and a pair of jeans. So, to be reasonable we'll assume it takes a pound of cotton to make our $5.25 shirt. Remember when you could buy cotton balls in a bag and how light it was? A pound of cotton is a LOT of cotton.

Once the cotton is picked it has to be processed and cleaned and spun into a fiber strand, or a string. Then it has to be dyed (or later in the process as I understand it) and then woven into a fabric. Then the t-shirt pattern is cut out and sewed together (it might be dyed at this point).

Now we have our tee shirt and we have to get it packaged, shipped to a store and then sold to the end user. So tell me, how is all this ethically accomplished for $5.25?

It can't be. It simply cannot be. Since I grew up on a farm, I know a teensy bit about growing things..and their associated costs. I cannot imagine any scenario where a farmer can produce a pound of cotton, send it through processing, manufacturing and shipping to the retailer for $5.25. Can you? How can it be possible that every person who works on that shirt from seed to salesman at Walmart makes enough money to: live on, pay for basic medical needs, or to even buy the shirt themselves? Does each person on that chain get a few pennies? Do the companies running the processing plants, manufacturing plants and retail stores get a few pennies? It costs a lot of money to run a farm in any country. Even if all the steps in the process are in a 3rd world country pennies are still pennies and they doesn't buy a lot of food, land, medical care, or housing.

I mean, how many shirts can a seamstress make in an hour? How many pounds of cotton can a person harvest (even with a machine) in a day? Cotton doesn't come to harvest every month of the year. How about the simple costs of watering and fertilizing? What about the costs of the chemicals used for processing the cotton? How much do those cost? What about shipping? The costs of storing an item on a retail shelf? The costs for the retailer to ring up the sale of the tee shirt and then put it in a bag for the customer?

Is it reasonable to think this is all done for a mere $5.25? Even if you account for the cost saving for volume, can you imagine that this could all occur for $5.25?

Since I think the $5.25 shirt is product of an institutionalized evil system...I can't imagine buying anymore tee shirts for less then about $20. As I sit here in my $11 tee shirt ( it was a boutique, folks) I think about the person who went without dinner for my shirt. Who went without dental care for my shirt? Who raised her brothers and sisters for her mom since she was working at the cotton plant for my shirt? Who died from the extraordinary volume of pesticides and chemicals used to grow and process my 1lb of cotton for my shirt?

After this post, I am not sure I should even wear cotton anymore, much less pay a pittance for a tee shirt. What about you? What did your shirt cost?

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