The three sectors of the economy

The economic infrastructure

Sunlight flooded the cabin as the plane changed course. It was
a bright, clear morning. Robyn looked out of the window as
England slid slowly by beneath them: cities and towns, their
street plans like printed circuits, scattered over a mosaic of tiny
fields, connected by the thin wires of railways and motorways.
Hard to imagine at this height all the noise and commotion going
on down there. Factories, shops, offices, schools, beginning the
working day. People crammed into rush hour buses and trains, or
sitting at the wheels of their cars in the traffic jams, or washing up
breakfast things in the kitchens of pebble-dashed semis. All
inhabiting their own little worlds, oblivious of how they fitted
into the total picture. The housewife, switching on her electric
kettle to make another cup of tea, gave no thought to the
immense complex of operations that made that simple action
possible: the building and maintenance of the power station that
produced the electricity, the mining of coal or pumping of oil
to fuel the generators, the laying of miles of cable to carry the
current to her house, the digging and smelting and milling of ore
or bauxite into sheets of steel or aluminium, the cutting and
pressing and welding of the metal into the kettle's shell, spout
and handle, the assembling of these parts with scores of other
components-coils, screws, nuts, bolts, washers, rivets, wires,
springs, rubber insulation, plastic trimmings; then the packaging
of the kettle, the advertising of the kettle, the marketing of the
kettle to wholesale and retail outlets, the transportation of the
kettle to warehouses and shops, the calculation of its price, and
the distribution of its added value between all the myriad people
and agencies concerned in its production. The housewife gave
no thought to all this as she switched on her kettle. Neither had
Robyn until this moment, and it would never have occurred to
her to do so before she met Vic Wilcox.

Cabina a fost invadata de lumina soarelui,odata ce avionul isi schimba cursa.A fost o dimineata luminoasa si senina.Robyn s-a uitat prin fereastra
,pe cind Anglia luneca incet de sub eiLorase mari si mici,planurile lor de strada,ca niste circuite imprimate,risipite asupra unui mozaic de cimpuri mici,unite de firele subtiri ale cailor ferate si autostrazi.
Greu de imaginat cum tot acest zgomot si agitatie se petrece acolo.Fabricile,magazinele,oficii,scoli incepindu-si ziua de lucru.Oamenii s-au ticsit in autobuze si trenuri in timpul orelor de virf,sau sau statind pe linga rotile masinelor lor in ambuteiaje,sau spalindu-si vasele a semifabricantelor in bucatarii.Fiecare fiind preocupat cu chestiile sale personale,evident de cum ei se incadreaza totalmente in imagine. Gospodina ,conectind ceainicul sau electric pentru a-si pregati o ceasca de ceai ,nici nu s-a gindit la imensul complex de operatiuni,care fac acea actiune simpla posibila:constructia si intretinerea centralei elctrice care produce electricitatea,miniere de carbune sau pomparea uleiului generatoarelor,intinderea a milelor de cabluri care transmit curent catre case,saparea si macinarea a minereului sau bauxitei in foi de otel sau aluminiu,presarea si sudarea metalului in coaja ceainicului,gura de scurgere si minerul,montarea acestor parti cu scorurile ale altor componente;-bobine,suruburi,piulite,bolturi,saibe,nituri,fire,arcuri,izolatie de cauciucuri,garnituri din material plastic,apoi ambalarea ceainicului,promovarea ceainicului,comercializarea acestuia la depozit si magazine,calcularea pretului sau si distribuirea ale valorilor sale adaugate printre un numar vast de oameni si agentii preocupate de productia lui.Gospodina nici nu s-a gindit la toate acestea cind a conetat ceainicul sau.
Nici Robyn pina in acest moment , si nici nu s-ar fi intimplat daca ea nu l-ar fi intinit pe Vic Wilcox.

Ex.1
In lines 4-7 Robyn sees examples of each sector of economy:"factories,shops": belonging to the second one,"offices,schools..buses,trains"-it refers to the tertiary sector.
Ex.2
Primary:-smelting iron,cutting metal,milling metal, pressing metal, digging iron ore,mining coal,pumping oil,welding metal.
Secondary:Calcutation prices,advertising products,marketing products,
Tertiary:- transportation,distributing added value,maintenance.

Discussion.
I can predict for sure my future job, but I hope I will have the possibility to obtain experience in the tertiary sector.I would like to have a job in the hotel bussiness, because of the chance to colaborate with different people.

2. Manufacturing and services

Two hundred years ago, the vast majority of the population of virtually every country lived in the countryside and worked in agriculture. Today , in what many people call ‘the advanced industrialized countries’, only 2-3 % of the population earn their living from agriculture. But some people already talk about ‘the post industrial countries’, because of the growth of service industries, and the decline of manufacturing, which is moving to ‘the developing countries’.

Is manufacturing industry important? Is its decline in the ‘advanced’ countries inevitable? Will services adequately replace it? Two opinions about this follow.

2a Reading

We worry about unemployment and the loss of manufacturing industry in the advanced industrial countries only because we don’t look at the larger social developments. The US, for example, no longer depends on heavy industry for employment to the extent that it once did.
This is related to a larger fact that has attracted very little discussion. After a country’s people are supplied with the physical objects of consumption, they go on the concern about their design. They go on to an enormous industry persuading people they should buy these goods; they go on to the arts, entertainment, music, amusement-these become the further, later stages of employment. And these are things that are extremely important.
Paris, London, New York and so on do not live on manufacturing; they live on design and entertainment. We do not want to consider that this is the solid substance of economics, but it is.
I don’t think it is possible to stop this progressive change in the patterns of human consumption. It is inevitable.

1. Why do people worry about the decline of manufacturing?
2. Which activities are as important as the production of goods?
3. Should people worry about this state of affairs?