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Just to give you one preview, when we sent our team of Caitlin Kenney and Zoe Chace to Bangladesh, we really wanted an answer to the question: Is it good or bad for Bangladesh that they make T-shirts there? And the complexity of the answers - I mean, they have the beautiful story of two sisters who really show all the good and all the bad that this transformation of Bangladesh represents. And we saw that story again and again throughout the world, that there's not some simple answer to the question. It was as complex as human beings can be.
SMITH: Bowen is a huge man, 6' 7. And as we wade into the field, the plants only come up to his belt buckle. He's going to send this crop around the world. Just like the Swiss make the best watches, the Germans perfected the sports car, Americans grow the most desired cotton in the world. And just like those watches and cars, American cotton does it by being high-tech.This is the John Deere 7760; iconic green color, big as a houseboat. Bowen bought five of them last year. And they were not cheap.FLOWERS: They're right at 600,000 a piece. So we got in a big investment. We got to make something to make the payments on them every year.SMITH: You bought $3 million worth of equipment last year to pick cotton.FLOWERS: It's crazy, isn't it? Real crazy. We might need to have our brain examined.SMITH: But these machines give Bowen an edge over small farmers in the rest of the world. He can pick cotton faster with fewer workers. Bowen can watch the progress of the pickers from his iPad sitting at home. And as cushy as it is for him, the driver up on top of the John Deere has an even sweeter gig.
When Shumi and Minu were growing up, sometimes there wasn't enough food to eat. They had three younger sisters who all died before they were 7. Now, Shumi and Minu are able to send money home. It isn't much, but it makes a big difference in the village."Now, we can eat whatever we want," their mother says. Their parents have built a new house, made of brick, to replace their old, bamboo house. And their younger brother can stay in school.
The Planet Money men's T-shirt was made in Bangladesh, by workers who make about $3 a day, with overtime. The Planet Money women's T-shirt was made in Colombia, by workers who make roughly $13 a day, without overtime.The wages in both places are remarkably low by U.S. standards. But the gap between them is huge. Workers in Colombia make more than four times what their counterparts make in Bangladesh. In our reporting, we saw that the workers in Colombia have a much higher standard of living than the workers in Bangladesh.
