5. What does the rational expectation theory provide a trustworthy basis for?
6. What is people\'s consumption positively related to, in the traditional economics?
7. What is people\'s consumption related to, in the rational expectations theory context?
8. What did the traditional economics think about temporary tax cuts in relation to their effect on consumption?
9. What sort of income are people relating their consumption decisions to?
10. What is permanent income?3. Факторы производства (Productive Forces)
Labour Force and Human Capital
Question: How many people does it take to make the economy work?
Answer: Only one, and it\'s me.
Proof:
The population of the United States is 180 million, but there are 64 million over 60 years of age, leaving 116 million to do the work.
People under 21 total 59 million which leaves 57 million people to do the work.
Because of the 31 million government employees, there are only 26 million left to do the work.
Six million in the armed forces leave twenty million workers.
Deduct 17 million State, county, and city employees, and we are left with three million to do the work.
There are 2,500,000 people in hospitals, asylums, and treatment facilities leaving half a million workers.
However, 450,000 of these are bums or others who will not work, leaving 50,000 to do the work.
Now, it may interest you to know that there are 49,998 people in jail so that leaves just 2 people to do all the work, and that is you and me, and I\'m getting tired of doing everything myself!
Слова и выражения:
total – составлять в целом
deduct – вычитать
asylum – сумасшедший дом
bum – бродяга, лодырь
jail – тюремная камера
armed forces – вооруженные силы
treatment facilities – лечебные учреждения
Exercise 1
Answer the questions:
1. What is the population of the USA?
2. How many elderly people who do not work live in the USA?
3. How many people serve in the army?
4. How many people are State, county, and city employees?
5. What can one man do for the entire economy to make it work?Labour Force
Labour force is one of the key points in each economy. It consists of a large part of what is called population. So, the amount and quality of labour force depend largely on the tendencies that affect population, which, in its turn, influences production.
In the years from 1950 to 1990 the world\'s population doubled, and now it is over 5,500 billion people. Only about 14 percent of the population growth was in developed countries, with around 86 percent in less developed countries. In developed countries this growth was caused by fertility and age distribution, while in less developed countries the main reasons were higher life expectancies and high birthrates. Life expectancy in developed countries was 74.0 years in 1990 as compared to 65.7 years in 1955 (62.0 and 41.0 respectively in less developed countries). By the 1900 the birthrate in developed countries fell to 1.9 births per woman. In the less developed countries it is 3.9 births per woman, which is still high enough to contribute substantially to population growth.
Lower birthrates and longer life lead to «population aging» which is most rapid in the developed world. The median age here rose from 28.2 in 1950 to about 35 close to the end of the century. In less developed countries the median age at present is only around 22.
The fear of population aging leads governments to introduce policies which aim at inducing people to have larger families (banning contraception and abortion, offering financial aid for women with babies, etc.)
At the same time many people still fear that global population growth will overwhelm the capacity of economies, and destroy the global ecosystem. Since Thomas Robert Malthus many economists believed that the growing number of people would make land increasingly scarce, and the rising food prices would leave the growing population starve.
The reality showed that those fears were poorly grounded. Cultivated land has become less important as the agricultural productivity has been boosted by fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, new seed varieties, irrigation, mechanical draft power, and education. In its turn this made food prices fall, and the production per capita rise, quite contrary to the predictions of the former economists.
Hunger and malnutrition still exist in many parts of the world, but they result more from poverty and uneven income distribution than from population growth.
To convert population into labour force certain investments into human capital are supposed to be made. Education, good up-bringing, expenditures of medical and health care are also capital, as they raise earnings, improve health, and add to a person\'s quality of life over much of his lifetime. Therefore, economists consider expenditures on education, training, medical care, and so on as investments in human capital. Studies show that high school and college education greatly raise a person\'s income, and this is true for hundred countries with different cultures and economic systems.
Economic growth of a country depends closely on the amount of investments into human capital, and large increases in education and training have to a great extend accounted for the outstanding economic records of Japan, Taiwan, and other Asian economies in recent decades.
Слова и выражения:
abortion – аборт, абортирование
ban – запрет; запрещать
billion – ам . миллиард
birthrate – уровень рождаемости
boost – увеличивать, поднимать
contraception – использование противозачаточных средств; противозачаточные средства
contribute – вносить, добавлять, привносить
convert – преобразовывать
cultivate – культивировать, обрабатывать, окультуривать
decade – десятилетие
double – двойной; удваивать
earnings – заработки
ecosystem – экосистема
expectancy – ожидание ( чего-либо ), предположение ( о чем-либо )
fertility – плодородие
fertilizer – удобрение
induce – вводить, внедрять, побуждать
insecticide – инсектицид
irrigation – ирригация
malnutrition – недоедание, недокорм
median – средний, срединный, среднеарифметический
outstanding – выдающийся
overwhelm – переполнять, поглощать, овладевать
pesticide – пестицид
population – население
poverty – бедность
prediction – предсказание
rapid – быстрый
respectively – соответственно
scarce – недостаточный, скудный
starve – голодать, умирать с голоду
substantially – существенным образом
tendency – тенденция
uneven – неровный
labour force – рабочая сила
key point – ключевой пункт
age distribution – показатели возрастной статистики
life expectancies – прогноз средней продолжительности жизни; средняя продолжительность жизни
per woman – на (одну) женщину
population aging – старение народонаселения
close to the end – близко к концу
poorly grounded – плохо обоснованный
seed variety – разнообразие семян; разновидность, сорт семян
draft power – тягловая сила
per capita – лат . на душу населения ( букв .: на голову)
contrary to – в противоположность (чему-либо)
result from – проистекать из; быть результатом
human capital – человеческий капитал
up-bringing – воспитание
expenditures – расходы
health care – здравоохранение; забота о здоровье
quality оf life – качество жизни
to a great extend – в значительной степени
Exercise 2
Answer the questions:
1. What do the amount and quality of labour force depend on?
2. What is the population of the Earth now?
3. How much of the population growth were the developed countries responsible for in the years from 1950 to 1990.
4. What was the growth of the population caused by in both developed and less developed countries?
5. What was the birthrate in both developed and less developed countries?
6. What was the median age in developed countries in the end of the century?
7. What policies do governments use to withstand the population aging?
8. What fears have the economists had since the days of Robert Malthus?
9. Why were these fears poorly grounded?
10. What do hunger and malnutrition in many parts of the word result from?
11. What investments are supposed to be made so that population could be converted into labour force?
12. How does higher education affect a person\'s income?Employment Opportunities for All
1
FBI Agent for Hire
Three men where at the FBI Building for a job interview.
The first man walked into the office.
The interviewing FBI agent said, «To be in the FBI you must be loyal, dedicated, and give us your all. Your wife is in the next room. I want you to go in there and shoot her with this gun.»
The man took the gun, hesitated, and said, "Sorry,
I can\'t do it."
The next interviewee came into the office.
The agent said, «To be in the FBI you must be loyal, dedicated, and give us your all. Your wife is in the next room. I want you to go in there and shoot her with this gun.»