Учебно-методическое пособие для подготовки к экзамену по английскому языку (для студентов экономических специальностей). Бегун Н.В - 11 стр.

yourself construction and improvement, and human investment in the form            either on the hypothesis that surpluses and low prices on the world market
of education.                                                                      will continue, or that shortages and high prices on the world market will
       The question whether it is growth in total consumption or growth in         continue, or that shortages and high prices will develop. They should be
consumption per head that matters is controversial. Most people would per-         flexible enough to react either to surpluses or to shortages, as the situation
haps opt for consumption per head, subject to not cutting off heads to in-         develops. For stability and emergency purposes should be shared by a
crease the ratio. If it were possible to draw a line, above this line in prefer-   wide group of countries.
ence to a smaller population at a still higher level of enjoyment. There is                One approach is that of attempting to control the total inflow of capi-
certainly a point beyond which we should not want to limit population, even        tal into the agricultural sector. Programmes to control total capital inflow
if it meant a higher rate of growth of consumption for the remainder. Such         however are difficult to formulate. The terms of Government credit pro-
questions were much debated in the nineteenth century and are still dis-           grammes can be varied, but the total range of credit sources is so wide as to
cussed. The fact that even very affluent societies do not encourage immi-          make control difficult. Nonetheless, the special measures by governments
gration and large families as part of their growth policies might suggest that     that are designed to provide credit to farmers – often at reduced interest
aggregate growth is not their aim. But we cannot conclude from this that           rates, or with other favourable terms – should be examined carefully with a
consumption per head is their objective, for neither are emigration and fam-       view toward speeding the transformation of agriculture. More careful selec-
ily limitation normally encouraged in rich countries in order to raise con-        tion by public lending agencies could serve this purpose and possibly have
sumption per head. In underdeveloped countries the objective is much               some influence on the rate of overall capital inflow into the sector. The
clearer. But in a country like Britain, does the absence of a conscious popu-      most powerful way, however, to influence capital investment is through the
lation policy mean that the government considers this is not a proper field in     price level for agricultural products; this affects both the level of saving that
which to interfere, even though it aims at growth of consumption per head,         accrue within agriculture, and the attractiveness of agricultural investment,
or does it mean that the government is not clear about what it is that it          whatever the source of finance.
wants to grow? If population policy is excluded, and if growth of consump-                 While price levels can also have an effect on land use in agriculture,
tion per head is the objective, we may have to abstain from consumption            direct programmes for shifting land out of agriculture may be needed. Pro-
today in order to raise consumption per head after two generations simply          grammes aimed at the transfer of land to other uses may have the effect of
because the population will be larger. Some people might object to making          reducing other inputs and thus may take on something of the character of a
sacrifices now in order to satisfy the propensity to procreate of others.          general programme to reduce total resources used in the sector. Taking
       In spite of these objections, growth of consumption per head seems          whole farms out of production is an example of this, since it is likely to en-
more sensible than the other possibilities, as long as we remember to in-          tail a reduction in the number of people working in agriculture and to mean
clude the growth of leisure and of consumption goods and services provided         that some capital is withdrawn at the same time. This is in contrast to a re-
by the government, subject to the proviso that some growth of non-                 duction in the land input by restricting the area planted in each farm where
consumption is wanted for other reason than to increase consumption later.         the most likely result is the use of additional inputs of other kinds (e.g. fer-
                                                                                   tiliser) in order to protect the income level of the farm. However, a pro-
                                 Text 6                                            gramme of voluntary land retirement in whole farm units raises many diffi-
    RECONCILIATION OF INCOME SUPPORT AND GROWTH                                    culties and problems which, to be resolved successfully, need to be tackled
       The question of obtaining an appropriate level of overall resource          within a general programme embracing alternative uses of land, structural
use in agriculture is most acute when problems of clearing the market              reform and area development, as well as social schemes to aid the move-
arise. Improvement in productivity and limited growth in demand may                ment of farm families.
make this problem more widespread in the future at least for some com-
modities and in some countries. However, national and international poli-
cies for the development of agriculture should not be based irrevocably
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