For the past two decades, and recently with the economic recession, the media has emphasized the decline of manufacturing in the United States and other developed countries. In the U.S., some initially blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for this decline. Hearing that manufacturing is on the decline, one might reason that its contribution to the wealth of the U.S. is also declining. To determine the importance of manufacturing to the U.S., it is important to compare manufacturing's contribution to the GDP with other sectors of the economy. Manufacturing, although declining as a source of jobs, is responsible for a significantly large portion of wealth in the U.S. How have more developed, high-wage countries, such as the U.S., adapted to increased global competition? It appears that U.S. manufacturers have improved productivity through technological and managerial innovations while simultaneously reducing the size of the manufacturing workforce. Perspective is critical when it comes to helping students to achieve understanding of a concept. To help students get a good idea of how many products a company would need to sell to break even, the author suggests that one should conduct a breakeven analysis. The analysis emphasizes the need to cut costs, increase productivity, and increase sales with competitive pricing. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)