The Economics of the Doll and Car Industry in the USA and in China Term Paper

The Economics of the Doll and Car Industry in the USA and in China - Term Paper Example Doll Production Doll production does not involve much heavy equipment to carry out its industrial production according to the movie. Considering the fact that doll making could be very convoluted and intricate at some point, it requires more labor force than machines since most machines do not have the capability to perform extremely complicated tasks with high levels of precision. Also, doll production takes in a lot of workers to work on the quality checking, dressing, molding phase, and assembling. Looking at the conditions, doll manufacturers have lower production as compared to other industries such as the car industry in that doll industry implements labor intensity rather than capital intensity. This is the reason why the doll industry employs several hundreds to thousands of workers to meet its production quota. It’s vivid from the movie that doll production goes through several phases. These phases includes, molding body parts, assembling of the body parts, varying doll colors, doll dressing, quality check and packaging. Most of the China dolls are manufactured by low fired ceramic. The doll heads are labeled easily lost stickers inside the heads. Certainly, each phase calls for a lot of workers to perform each type of operation. Consequently, the current doll production process entails not just lower production but also higher production cost as doll manufacturers have to remunerate a considerable number of workers. Car Production In car production employs capital intensity in the manufacture of the cars. Car manufacturers use a large part of its capital to purchase and install extremely heavy and costly machines and robots rather than workers to carry out its production. (Economy Watch, â€Å"Capital Intensive Industry†). One fine example is the recently constructed Honda assembly plant in Wuhan, Central China. This new Honda facility poses a capability to produce thousands of cars annually. As a matter of fact, as stated on the video, DFAC Honda has produced 164,200 units in 2008 alone; and this is still way short to the facility’s maximum production capacity of 240,000 cars. Honda also underwent a joint venture, which combined Guangzhou Honda and DFAC Honda. This merger has resulted into Honda being one of the top five selling car brands, 470,000 units sold annually, and two independent channels of sales. Also, 95% of this production was sold in China, and 70% of the auto parts were supplied locally. Honda’s high production can be attributed to its implementation of capital intensity. It uses heavy equipment and high-priced machines to work as substitute for the labor force. In general, car manufacturers prefer this strategy in their production because it entails high production but lesser production cost. In the video, Honda installs hundreds of robots and heavy machines to build cars. These robots and machines work simultaneously and coordinately for a faster and more precise assembly of cars. Capital-intensive industries such as Honda do not necessarily discount the importance of labor force. Car manufactures still employ labor force to perform very important functions in the installation of small auto parts and for checking the quality of the car; although, car production requires smaller number of workers. Labor Intensity Labor intensity involves a large number of employees or longer hours of work from its employees in order to meet certain production quota. The production cost can be measured by taking the proportion between the labor cost and the capital cost. In the case of doll production, a lot of human labor is implicated since. This is because it involves a lot of complicated tasks and high levels of precision in the making unlike the car industry whereby human labor is minimal. This makes the doll industry is labor intensive. Capital Intensity Capital intensity entails an investment of the capital to heavy and expensive machines to act as substitute for a

Radiality as a Comprehensive Behavioral Model Essay

Radiality as a Comprehensive Behavioral Model - Essay Example The origins of the radiality as a foundational cultural model in the domain of spatial relationship may be traced to the island nation of Tonga (Bennardo 2009). Tongan language has only 3 linguistic representations of spatial relationships. This makes it a simpler study than languages with many more because correlation interpretation is reduced to fewer permutations. The concept of radiality impacts other realms of understanding within anthropology. It correlates with understandings of religious belief (Bennardo 2009). It explains theories about spatial navigation and material possessions. It also helps in our comprehension of kinship patterns. This method of interpretation contributes no less to our understanding of social relationships. It seems cognitive processes of language production and interpretation manifest in gross behavioral patterns. Methods of radiality modeling result in a broader understanding of social relationships with respect to language (Bennardo 2008). Looking for a cultural model of social relationships in Tongan, investigators collected linguistic, experimental, and social network data. They focused on the core concept of the model where 'Ofa is giving, either giving help from higher to lower or giving duty or respect from lower to higher. Surveys were formulated to study spatial linguistic correlations to cognitive beliefs. Three semi-structured interviews were used (Bennardo 2008). One was about how individuals perceive social relationships between others where participants answered questions about the existence and composition of groups in their village, their island, and country. Another was about individual personal relationships where participants answered questions about their relationships to other people in the village. Still, another was about indirect social relationships where participants told a story that occurred in their village that they thought represented village life. From 60 interviews of about 24 hours of audiovisual recordings verbal coders went to work. They conducted statistical analyses of words to uncover certain obviates. They applied methods of metaphor and keyword analysis to identify specific correlations (Bennardo 2008). Metaphor analysis included certain priorities: first to identify metaphors, second to sort them by type and identify key words, and third to locate organizational principles. Key word analysis included four words that appeared during the metaphor analyses: 'Ofa 'love'; Fatongia 'duty'; Kavenga 'lighter duty'; Faka'apa'apa 'respect.' The results of these tests yielded the following information about Tongan culture. Researchers found a number of relevant cognitive behavioral principles as a result of their statistical analysis. It seems society is hierarchical to the Tongans (Bennardo 2008). Individuals are located at different levels of the society's ladder. 'Ofa 'love' links these individuals to make them a whole. The king and elite are connected with the Divine as evident in the shininess of their bodies. This work has provided a greater understanding of language and relationships in Tongan society. How does radiality impact our understanding of social relationships It does so by providing a method of understanding for describing how language influences cognition and social behavior. Its pragmatic value is evident in its contributions to behavioral