Rivoli Reading

1. The cotton industry in which the US used slave labor, and cheap labor for foreign immigrants gave them an advantage in the industry. It allowed them to harvest a lot of product with very low overhead cost, which allows for a larger income. In a pure market economy America would not have the absolute advantage because all the other "players" in the industry would have the same advantages.

2. Culture interacting with economics is shown in the first chapter. The t-shirt company owners grandfather who started the company would go to New York and buy cheap trinkets and sell them in Florida, eventually switching to t-shirts. The culture in Florida, and the tourism mindset, inspired the owner to change from trinkets to t-shirts because he would have an higher income.

3. I was surprised by t-shirt shop owner. How he went out of his way to New York to buy trinkets to sell. Someone just starting a small business and putting in a lot of hard work, and eventually switching to something more demanding is sometimes hard to do because you are so sold on your original idea and sometimes people dont want to change.