專四晨讀美文：A Country's Standard of Living

A Country's Standard of Living
The "standard of living" of any country
means the average person's share of the goods and services
which the country produces.
A country's standard of living,therefore,
depends first and foremost
on its capacity to produce wealth.
"Wealth" in this sense is not money,
for we do not live on money but on things that money can buy:
"goods" such as food and clothing,
and "services" such as transport and entertainment.
A country's capacity to produce wealth
depends upon many factors,
most of which have an effect on one another.
Wealth depends to a great extent
upon a country's natural resources,
such as coal, gold, and other minerals,
water supply and so on.
Some regions of the world
are well supplied with coal and minerals,
and have a fertile soil and a favourable climate;
other regions possess none of them.
Next to natural resources comes the ability to turn them to use.
Some countries are perhaps well off in natural resources,
but suffered for many years from civil and external wars,
and for this and other reasons
have been unable to develop their resources.
Sound and stable political conditions,
and freedom from foreign invasion,
enable a country to develop its natural resources
peacefully and steadily,
and to produce more wealth than another country
equally well served by nature but less well ordered.
Another important factor
is the technical efficiency of a country's people.
Industrialized countries
that have trained numerous skilled workers and technicians
are better placed to produce wealth than countries
whose workers are largely unskilled.
A country's standard of living
does not only depend upon the wealth
that is produced and consumed within its own borders,
but also upon what is indirectly produced
through international trade.
For example, Britain's wealth in foodstuffs
and other agricultural products
would be much less
if she had to depend only on those grown at home.
Trade makes it possible for her surplus manufactured goods
to be traded abroad for the agricultural products
that would otherwise be lacking.
A country's wealth is, therefore,
much influenced by its manufacturing capacity,
provided that other countries
can be found ready to accept its manufactures.