|
2014研究生考试将于1月4、5、6日举行,届时新东方网考研频道会在考后第一时间公布2014年考研真题答案及解析,并邀请北京新东方考研名师团队进行考后试题解析,请同学们密切关注新东方网考研频道。(新浪微博@新东方网考研了解最新消息)
The larger a machine and the more numerous its parts. the greater
likelihood of a breakdown and the more expensive to repair. What has been said
about market forces and management was necessarily oversimplified. The economies
of modern industrial nations are large and very complex. To be sure, there is
management, and there are market forces at work, but there are also many other
factors that help or hinder economic function.
In modern industrial societies' governments play a large role. There is a
great amount of regulation, most of it meant for the protection of the public.
All regulations affect the way businesses operate, often increasing their costs
and reducing their profits. Lower profits, in turn, reduce the amount of money
which is known as working capital that a company can use for expansion. Auto
emission standards, for instance, have had a significant impact on the
manufacture and pricing of automobiles. Other government policies such as
taxation, budget deficits, and regulation of the money supply have an effect on
how much money is available for people to spend on goods and services.
International crises and other conditions also affect the working of an
economy. A severe frost in Brazil can ruin a coffee crop and raise the price of
that commodity. War can cut off the supply of such resources as petroleum,
chromium, or copper. In the United States environmental protests have slowed the
development of nuclear energy capacity and the mining of vast tracts of
protected land. Weather affects agriculture, a hot, dry summer can damage the
wheat crop; floods can destroy thousands of acres of crops suddenly; and insect
pests can devastate cropland with a rapid onslaught.
People's attitudes also have an impact on the marketing of goods.
Health-conscious individuals, for example, may stop smoking, curtail their
intake of alcohol, and eat less of certain kinds of food. Advertising affects
what people buy, and it can create a market where none existed. Style and
fashion are significant for many consumers.
There are other economic problems that are more difficult to understand.
For centuries economies have been subject to periods of prosperity followed by
periods of decline. Although periods of prosperity can be explained rather
easily, the reasons for panics, recessions, and depressions are of a complex
nature. So many factors contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s, for
example, that no economist has ever been able to account for all of them.
Because the causes of decline are uncertain, the remedies are equally
uncertain. In the late 20th century all industrialized societies through their
governments have tried to stabilize economies, keep them prosperous, and reduce
unemployment. None of the remedies has worked to the extent that was hoped. How
economies work and what remedies can be found to keep them operating efficiently
are the tasks of economists, who must work together with businessmen and
politicians.
|
|