6. Economy of the united states of america
The United States of America is one of the largest countries in the world. It has a developed free enterprise economy1. It means that people are able to own2 capital and property and to run their own businesses3 for making profit4. Most economic decisions in the country are made in the marketplace. Nearly 90 per cent of the goods and services5 produced in the country each year come from privately owned companies and firms.
The United States owes11 its high level of economic development to its great wealth of minerals and fertile farm soil12, together with a moderate climate13. The territory is extremely rich in such minerals as coal, oil, natural gas, iron ore14 and non-ferrous metals15. They provide a solid base for modern industry.
The country has very powerful industries, advanced technologies, and science. The structural composition of the US industry shows a marked predominance16 of heavy industry, namely mining, chemical, metallurgy, machine-building, nuclear power and aeromissile industries. Electronic and electric engineering, transport, communication and machine-tool industries can be found almost in all large cities of the USA.
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the US economy.
American agriculture produces more food products than any other capitalist country.
The United States harvests a lot of vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes and onions. Florida and California are famous for their fruit production. They grow oranges, lemons, tangerines and grapefruit. Strawberries, pears and apples are also produced in large quantities.
Animal husbandry is also developed in the country.
7. What is economics?
Studying economics for the first time, it is necessary to know what economics is all about1. Unfortunately, it is not possible to define the subject by a single word. Economics was defined as the study of mankind in the everyday business life. This means that economics deals with production, distribution, exchange and consumption. It answers such questions as: How do we produce all the things we need? How are prices determined?
Economics is a social science like history, geography, politics, psychology and sociology. It is the study of human efforts to satisfy what seems like unlimited and competing wants4 through the careful use of relatively scarce resources. Economists study what is or tends to be and how it came to be. They do not in any way pretend to tell what ought to be. People must make up their own minds5 about that.
Economics like any other social science has its own vocabulary. To understand economics, a review of some key terms1 is necessary: needs2, wants3, and demands4.
A need is a basic requirement for survival. People have basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. People also have higher level needs, such as communication, love, acceptance, knowledge, hope and accomplishment.
A want is a means of expressing a need. Food, for example, is a basic need related to survival. To satisfy this need, a person may want a pizza, hamburger or other favourite food. That is there are any number of foods that will satisfy the basic need for food.