Planned Economies

Planned economies are sometimes called «command economies» because the state commands the use of resources that are used to produce goods and services as it owns factories, land and natural resources. Planned economies are economies with a large amount of central planning and direction, when the government takes all the decisions, the government decides production and consumption. Planning of this kind is obviously very difficult, very complicated to do, and the result is that there is no society, which is completely a command economy.

The actual system employed varies from state to state, but command or planned economies have a number of common features. Firstly, the state decides precisely what the nation is to produce. It usually plans five years ahead. It is the intention of the planners that there should be enough goods and services for all.

Secondly, industries are asked to comply with these plans and each industry and factory is set a production target to meet. If each factory and farm meets its target, then the state will meet its targets as set out in the five-year plans. You could think of the factory and farm targets to be objectives which, if met, allow the nation's overall aim to be reached.

Task II. Scan the text above and write down all the sentences containing the Passive forms.

Task III. Open the brackets using the Degrees of Comparison.

1. Reading is (useful) than watching TV.

2. Mike found himself a (safe) job somewhere out of town.

3. We prefer the Palm Beach though it is the (far) from the centre.

4. This computer is (far) more advanced than the old model.

5. They talked about the (late) developments in agriculture.

Task IV. Find the synonyms for the words and combinations given below.

Task V. Fill in the correct article.

1. Keynes took … position with … civil service in … Britain.

2. While there, he collected … material for his … first book in economics.

3. In this … book he described … workings of … India’s monetary system.

4. He returned to … Cambridge in … 1908 as … lecturer.

5. Keynes became … celebrity before becoming one of … most respected economists of … century.

Task VI. Open the brackets using the Pronouns someone, everyone, anyone, no one. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Is there … in this house?

2. You can wish … you want on your birthday.

3. … knows that two and two make four.

4. Does … know the name of this economist?

5. … phoned you while you were at the meeting.

Task VII. Translate into English.

1. В мире не существует стран, которые полностью основаны на плановой экономике.

2. Плановую экономику еще называют командной.

3. В плановой системе государство руководит производством и потреблением ресурсов.

4. Перед каждым производством государство устанавливает план на пять лет.

5. При плановой системе государство решает, что необходимо производить в стране.