Английский язык для экономистов - Малюга Е.Н.
ISBN 5-469-00341-8
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Labour laws used to cover everyone, even those people not legally permitted to work. Trade unions provided strong support, preferring immigrants to swell their ranks rather than provide cheap competition. In 1986, hiring undocumented workers was made illegal. But employers resisted becoming, in effect, immigration agents, and the law was little enforced.
TheNational Labour Relations Board, which supported Mr. Castro, has continued to allow undocumented workers to get back-pay if they are fired. But the Supreme Courtjibbed in Mr. Castro's case, saying he had in any case got his job through a criminal fraud, and should not be paid wages he could not legally have earned. ChiefJustice William Rehnquist added that this would only encourage violation of the immigration laws.
Writing for the minority, Justice Stephen Breyer argued that stripping labour-law protection from illegal aliens would not only undermine Ame- Unit 1. Labour Relations
29
rica's domestic labour law but would lower the cost of illegal labour, drawing more hopefuls in. Whatever happens, it is certain that America's noncitizens are now more vulnerable than they were.
K.2. After reading the text write down in two appropriate columns what illegal aliens can/must and cannot/ must not do in the United States.
Illegal aliens can/must do Illegal aliens cannot/must not do
K.3. Sum up the arguments for and against paying Mr. Castro wages.
K.4. Divide the class into two groups and make up the speech of:
a) Attorney;
b) Prosecutor.
K.5. Decide what actions Trade Unions can take to support illegal aliens. Plan a Trade Unions' campaign against the violation of rights of America's non-citizens. Unit 2
Production and Costs
A. Preliminary discussion
1. How can you define production?
2. What is the ultimate aim of production?
3. What are factors of production? Can you name some of them?
B* Pre-reading exercises
B.l. Skim the text and give its key idea.
B.2. Scan the text for the following information.
1. What difficult task does any producer face?
2. How many stages of production are mentioned in the text?
3. What is the key concept of Diminishing Returns?
C Reading
C.l. Read the text and answer the questions.
1. How can you formulate the Law of Variable Proportions?
2. In what way is the output of final product affected by adding more units of production?
3. How does total cost of production differ from marginal cost?
4. Where is marginal analysis used?
Production and Costs
Garry Clayton
Whether they are film producers of multimillion-dollar epics or small firms that market a single product, suppliers face a difficult task. Producing an economic good or service requires a combination of land, labour, сарі- Unit 2. Production and Costs
31
tal, and entrepreneurs. The theory of production deals with the relationship between the factors of production and the output of goods and services.
The theory of production is generally based on the short run, a period of production that allows producers to change only the amount of the variable input called labour. This contrasts with the long
run, a period of production long enough for producers to adjust the quantities of all their resources, including capital.
The Law of Variable Proportions state that, in the short run, output will change as one input is varied while the others are held constant.
The Law of Variable Pi oportions deals with the relationship between the input of productive resources and the output of productive resources and the output of final products. The law helps answer the question: How is the output of the final product affected as more units of one variable input or resource are added to fixed amount of other resources? Of course, it is possible to vary all the inputs at the same time. Economists do not like to do this, however, because when more than one factor of production is varied, it becomes harder to gauge the impact of a single variable on total output.
When it comes to determining the optimal number of variable units to be used in production, changes in marginal product are of special interest. There are three stages of production — increasing returns, diminishing returns, and negative returns — that are based on the way marginal product changes as the variable input of labour is changed.
In stage one, the first workers hired cannot work efficiently because there are too many resources per worker. As the number of workers increases, they make better use of their machinery and resources. This results in increasing returns (or increasing marginal products) for the first five workers hired. As long as each new worker hired contributes more to total output than the worker before, total output rises at an increasingly faster rate. This stage is known as the stage of increasing returns.
In stage two, the total production keeps growing, by smaller and smaller amount. This stage illustrates the principle of diminishing returns, the stage where output increases at a diminishing rate as more units of variable inpuX are added. 32
