We have also come to accept wildly poor standards for clothing construction because of our disconnect between expense and quality. Can you imagine brushing off

We have also come to accept wildly poor standards for clothing construction because of our disconnect between expense and quality. Can you imagine brushing off those little snags you get in your tshirts after one wash as "just how these things are"if you had paid the real modern (local labor) cost for them? As a sewist I would estimate that the labor and materials cost for one well-made, good material t-shirt would be at least $45 [0] before even accounting for profit margin, yet people grumble at paying $20 for slave labor cotton blended with plastic made at the hands of an overworked, underpaid sweatshop worker. Our ability to source clothing so cheaply coupled with our lack of direct interaction with the making and maintenance of them has lowered our expectations in a race to the bottom. [0] back of napkin math - i might be able to find a decent knit cotton with some veneer of ethical sourcing at a rock-bottom price of $10-12 per yard (in practice F to doubt). Assuming a pittance for the thread (and ignoring the upstart costs for acquiring a sewing machine), I would peg my skillset at a value of $35-50 per hour given my experience based on the rates of similarly skilled artisans in the US.