Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)

by Rachel Slade

Buying foreign-made goods allows us to ignore the environmental impact of our choices as well. Textile manufacturing is the second-most-polluting industry in the world. While American factories are highly regulated, developing countries lack the political will, resources, or international permission to monitor everything that goes on. (The WTO, for example, is forever on the watch for environmental or labor laws that could be said to impede free trade.) Fabric dyes, which can be quite toxic, might be dumped into the closest river, turning a region’s water supply lethal. It’s precisely that lack of regulation in developing countries which contributes to making some foreign goods so cheap to produce.