Basic Ingredients of English-Speaking Countries Economies

Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are referred to as English-speaking countries. Availability of market economy i.e. based on free enterprise, generally characterized by private ownership and initiative, with a relative absence of government involvement is characteristic for them. However, government intervention has been found necessary from time to time to ensure that economic opportunities are fair and accessible to the people, to prevent flagrant abuses, to dampen inflation and to stimulate growth. Such economies are generally described as mixed, which is to say that even though the great majority of productive resources are privately owned, the federal government does play an important role in the marketplace.

Every economic system tries to anticipate and then meet human needs and wants through the production and distribution of goods and services. The economic system is the mechanism that brings together natural resources, the labor supply, technology, and the necessary entrepreneurial and management talents.

The first ingredient of an economic system is the natural resources from which goods are produced. In general, these countries have land rich in mineral resources and fertile farm soil. Second, the amount of available labor helps determine the health of the economy. Generally, all these countries have been fortunate in having enough people to provide the labor necessary for constantly expanding economies. The Protestant work ethic supported the demand for hard work. The strong emphasis placed on education also contributed to their economic success. Likewise the willingness to experiment, to change and to invest in technology was significant in a land that had pride itself on being a new experiment in freedom.

But the existence of abundant natural resources and a skillful and willing labor force accounts for only part of an economic system structure. The resources must be directed as efficiently as possible into the areas where they will be most productive. In the economies of main English-speaking countries, managers of enterprises responding to signals

from market perform this function. The corporation as a voluntary association of owners known as stockholders has proved to be an effective device for accumulating funds for investment.

All free market economies run in a cycle, one not so much of'boom and bust' as of expansion and contraction. Looked at over time, this rise and fall of the economies can be charged with a certain regularity devoid of a matching precision. Forecasting just when they will enter a new phase, such as recession or growth, remains more art than science. Now the economies of English-speaking countries stand at different stages of the cycle. However, despite periodic recessions or depressions, they have continued to grow over time.

II. Ответьте на вопросы.

1. What countries are referred to as English-speaking ones?

2. Are those developed or developing countries?

3. What is characteristic for a free market economy?

4. What are the major ingredients of an economic system?

5. Why do economies of English-speaking countries prove to be so successful?

6. Explain the terms boom, boost, expansion, and contraction.