The Scale and Scope of Technology

Scale of the automobile industry in the U.S. defines its economic and social values. The magnitude of the scale added a multi-layered complexity to the way people perceive “power” and “privacy” (Volti, 1996). The rise of automobile industry is the direct result from the popularity of the bicycle industries in the late 1800s. The bicycle-mania “revealed a hunger for personal transportation” (664), wrote Volti in his article “A century of Automobility.” This assumption supports author’s own assertion in his book “Society and Technological Change” that technology creates its own needs (p. 7).

The early automobile creations were a result of individual curiosity and creativity. But personal creativity gave away to the need for technologically advanced car. Enter Ford and General Motors (GM). Both companies introduced two fundamentally different, yet economically convergent, business strategies to define the way businesses should be run. Ford introduced the idea of mass production while GM introduced mass marketing.

Four ideologies that continue to define and refine technology. They are: scale, values, system, and externalities. Ford’s success of mass production in the U.S. market, I’d argue, has been intrinsically related to a value system – the way American people saw and thought about cars – that exemplified the U.S. consumer behavior. Volti (1996) asserted in his article that French were the leading automotive makers until the end of the 19th century. Its lead dissipated with the power of mass production of cars in the U.S. But here’s the interesting point. The car buyers in the U.S. did not care about the technological information about the car. All they wanted was the car they paid for. And they were happy to own their symbol of “power” and “privacy.” America car buyers “never inquire about mechanism,” (p.666). In contrast, the European car buyers showed significant interest in finding out about the technological details of their cars. The behavioral difference between the car buyers in the U.S. and Europe should manifest further research on the success of mass production of Ford.

GM used mass appeal to persuade American people to buy cars. The introduction of General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) is an example of creating credit system to help consumers to buy cars. Both philosophies paved the way for the U.S. auto industry to rake in billions of dollars of revenue. According to Volti, the U.S. GNP constituted 4.5 percent of auto manufacturing by the mid-90s (p. 673).

The scale of the U.S. auto industry is continuing to march forward in the U.S. culture. Even during the recent government bailouts, the “Big Three” automakers made headlines and headaches.