The traditional economy

It's hard to imagine our lives without coins, banknotes and credit cards. Yet for most of human history people lived without money. For thousands of years human societies had very simple economies. There were no shops, markets or traders. There were no employers, paid workers and salaries. Today, we call this kind of economy the traditional economy, and in some parts of Asia, South America this system still exists.

People who live in a traditional economy don?t have money because they don?t need it. They live lives of subsistence. That means they hunt, gather or grow only enough food to live. There is almost no surplus in the traditional economy, and there is almost no property. Families may own simple accommodation, but land is shared by all the tribe. Economic decisions are taken according to the customs of the tribe. For example, every family may need to give some of the crops they grow to the tribal leader, but keep the rest for themselves. They don?t do this because it makes economic sense. They do it because the tribe has always done it. It's simply a custom.

Custom, also, decides what jobs people do in the traditional economy. People generally do the jobs that their parents and grandparents did before them. Anyway, there aren?t many jobs to choose from in the traditional economy. Men are hunters, farmers or both. The woman's place is at home looking after children, cooking and home-making. This division of labor between men and women is another characteristic of the traditional economy. Whatever the work is, and whoever does it, you can be sure it's hard work. This is because traditional economies have almost no technology. Physical strength and knowledge of the environment are the tools to survival.

Like any other economical system, the traditional economy has its benefits and drawbacks. Probably the biggest benefit is that these are peaceful societies. People consume almost everything they produce and own practically nothing. They are equally poor. For all this reasons, war is almost unknown in these societies.

However, people who live in traditional societies are among the poorest people in the world. Because custom decides what people do, nothing in these societies ever changes. Because there is no technology, people depend on nature to survive. They have no protection from environmental disasters like droughts and floods. They are always in danger of hunger and disease.

But the traditional economy is in danger itself. There are only a few examples left on the planet. In 100 years from now, it may have disappeared forever.

?. Comprehension

Now read the text again and match each paragraph with the correct heading

PARAGRAPH 1????????

PARAGRAPH 2????????

PARAGRAPH 3????????

PARAGRAPH 4????????

PARAGRAPH 5????????

PARAGRAPH 6????????

A. Life without money

B. The advantages of the traditional economy

C. The future of the traditional economy

D. The disadvantages of the traditional economy

E. The importance of tradition

F. Work in the traditional economy

Unit 2

Before you read

Discuss the following with your partner.

You learnt about the free market economy in the last unit.

Can you think of any disadvantages it may have?

With your partner, see if you can think of any ideas for this points:

-advertising

-prices

-lank food

A Vocabulary

Match the words and phrases with the definitions

1. commodity A. when the government sets

a limit on how much people

can buy of something

2. standard B. when there is not enough

of something

3. socialist C. a strong metal made of

Iron

4. industry D. something you can buy

or sell

5. steel E. what is usual or typical

6. indicate F. all the businesses and companies

involved in the production of heavy goods, food, technology, etc

7. warning system G. describes someone/something

aiming to share wealth equally

8. shortage H. secretly storing and hiding

goods for use later

9. rapidly I. work

10.ration J. show

11. solution K. very quickly

12. hoard L. money paid regularly for

work done

13. operate M. answer to a problem

14. wages N. a system which tells us that something bad is going to happen

Date: 2016-06-13; view: 10