9781422281208

remote villages without reliable access to clean drinking water, electricity, adequate schooling, and basic health care. Their average wage is a mere $2 a day. This leaves them with no resources to invest for the future and no safety net to fall back on when crops fail or natural disasters strike. Ironically, many West African cocoa farmers don’t even know what chocolate tastes like. Although their lives are devoted to cocoa beans, the price of an ordinary candy bar is a luxury beyond reach. West Africa by itself produces almost three-quarters of the world’s cocoa supply. Yet the entire continent of Africa accounts for just 3 percent of the world’s total chocolate consumption. Wealthy Western

The low wages paid to textile workers in developing countries, such as these Indians, make it possible for Western consumers to purchase inexpensive clothing.

Global Trade, Poverty, and Inequality 13