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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 populationearntheir living from agriculture. But some people already talk about ‘thepost-industrialcountries’, because of the growth of service industries, and the declineofmanufacturing, which is moving to ‘the developing countries’.
Is manufacturing industry important? Is its decline in the ‘advanced’countriesinevitable? Will services adequately replace it? Two opinions about thisfollow.
Ex. 1.Read this extract from an interview with the well-knownCanadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, and answer the questions.
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?
| 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 tact that has attracted very little discussion. After a country’s people are supplied with the physical objects of consumption, they go on to 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. (J.K. Galbraith in conversation with Steve Platt, New Statesman and Society) |
Ex. 2.Listen to a short interview with Denis MacShane, a British Memberof Parliament for the Labour Party. Does he hold the same view as J.K. Galbraith?
Ex. 3. Now listen again and answer the following questions. Pay attention to the words in bold type.
1. Why does MacShane think that manufacturing has a future?
2. Why does MacShane think that manufacturing has a future in the advanced countries?
3. Why, however, is this manufacturing unlikely to solve the problem of unemployment?
4. What does MacShane mean by ‘in theory there should be no more manufacturing’ in Switzerland? (It is this theory that makes many people argue that manufacturing must move to ‘less-developed’ countries.)
5. Why does he say it is surprising for a British company to be Buying Swiss goods?
6. What is the reason he gives for the United States still being the richest nation in the world?
Ex. 4. Summarize both Galbraith's and MacShane's arguments in a short paragraph of fewer than 50 words.
Ex. 5.Do you agree with either of these views? Discuss your points with the rest of the class.
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