The podcast on buttons and connectors talks about the production in two companies. It relates the output power in the United States and china. Reasons are given as to why either of the two companies is successful or not. An analysis of the economy of china and the united is given close view. A talk of how the state-owned companies cut down workers to manage their budgets. Most people lost their jobs because the government was not in a position to pay them. Private companies set in and provided jobs for the unemployed. The economy of capitalism and the free market proved to be a better option for improving the welfare state of the people. The state of manufacturing in the United States is compared to the rest of the world to see where the manufacturing industry is heading. Two manufacturing factories are taken into context. The Buttonwood Corporation and Zierick Manufacturing Corporation are compared and contrasted along the lines of production. Both companies make connectors. Buttonwood Corporation makes buttons for clothing and on the other hand Zierick Corporation makes connectors for electronic devices. It is found out that the pricing of commodities and innovation determines a company’s success or failure. The Buttonwood Corporation in previous years produced thousand of buttons in a day. A second look at it the company that initially had 150 machines, and hundreds of employees dropped to having only one employee and no machines left. The demand for American wood buttons fell because china got into the production of buttons. With the use of high technology machines and the cheap labor china produced more inexpensive buttons and faster making competition for buttonwood hard. Through cheap labor, China’s economy has grown in production compared to the United States (Gates 1996 p 140). Buttonwood did not improve in technology so as to compete in the global market. The free market economy allowed china to set its prices lower hence making China’s buttons a preference in the market. Superior machines and cheap labor is what Buttonwood Corporation lacked in the competing market. In the current capitalist economy innovation and cheap labor is essential to gain success. To compete in a capitalist economy Zierick Corporation can be used as a model for American companies. The company makes connectors for electronic devices. It appears to be the kind of thing that should be made in china, but Zierick has proved to be the number one producer of connectors. The trick for Zierick is to keep improving on the ideas and making the connectors better and better. The company makes good and reliable connector though the price is high. How then does the company still thrive amidst competition in price? Quality is what the company focuses on. Most successful firms in the United States manage to compete because of the production of quality goods. Most products made in the United States have a lucrative market in china because of the good quality they put in production (Ted 2009). The manager of the company says apart from making connectors they are in the business of innovation. The director says he makes a new innovation every year. This helps them move with the technology and remain still relevant in the market. In conclusion, the podcast gives an overview of what should be done by the United States manufacturing companies to stay in business. In the capitalist and free market economy labor, price and innovation are paramount to moving forward. The use of skilled labor can prove to be useful because the outcome is quality work that has an edge in the market.
References
Koppel, Ted. The People's Republic of Capitalism. Silver Spring, MD: Athena, 2009.
Gates, Hill. China's Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. Print.
