Foundational Economy: Difference between revisions
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"Rather than hoping forlornly to recover what’s lost in British manufacturing, it would be better to start by thinking about what’s left in the foundational economy of mundane activities which sustains the infrastructure of everyday life. This idea of the “ foundational” introduces a new way of thinking and classifying economic activity, so we can begin by answering three questions: what is included in the foundational? Why does it matter? And how is it ubiquitous, persistent and policy relevant.The foundational economy provides the infrastructure of everyday life. The largest component of the foundational economy in the UK and elsewhere is health education and welfare because high incomes everywhere increase the demand for eds and meds. This demand is supplied in the UK by the state sector and a growing para state of publicly funded private employers in care homes,nursery education and such like. The other key component of the foundational is mundane activities like utilities, retail and food processing which produce necessary everyday goods and services which are used by everybody regardless of income or social status. In Britain, the utilities like water and electricity were privatised under Thatcher and joined supermarket retail and food processing in an augmented private sector.The foundational matters because it is the single most important determinant of our collective welfare and because it has a huge employment base of ten million or more. On a broad definition, some 30 % of the national workforce are employed in health, education and welfare with another 10% or more in the utilities, retail and food manufacture. At national level, the leverage of foundational policies on outcomes is much stronger here than in manufacturing where employment is declining towards two million; and, significantly, the largest sector in manufacturing by employment is the foundational sector of food processing which employs nearly 400,000 and is crucial to managing import penetration.Regionally, the foundational share is close to half of all employment in the depressed ex industrial districts of Wales so any foundational policies have anexplicit spatial dimension and are crucial to managing the growing gap between the regions." | "Rather than hoping forlornly to recover what’s lost in British manufacturing, it would be better to start by thinking about what’s left in the foundational economy of mundane activities which sustains the infrastructure of everyday life. This idea of the “ foundational” introduces a new way of thinking and classifying economic activity, so we can begin by answering three questions: what is included in the foundational? Why does it matter? And how is it ubiquitous, persistent and policy relevant.The foundational economy provides the infrastructure of everyday life. The largest component of the foundational economy in the UK and elsewhere is health education and welfare because high incomes everywhere increase the demand for eds and meds. This demand is supplied in the UK by the state sector and a growing para state of publicly funded private employers in care homes,nursery education and such like. The other key component of the foundational is mundane activities like utilities, retail and food processing which produce necessary everyday goods and services which are used by everybody regardless of income or social status. In Britain, the utilities like water and electricity were privatised under Thatcher and joined supermarket retail and food processing in an augmented private sector.The foundational matters because it is the single most important determinant of our collective welfare and because it has a huge employment base of ten million or more. On a broad definition, some 30 % of the national workforce are employed in health, education and welfare with another 10% or more in the utilities, retail and food manufacture. At national level, the leverage of foundational policies on outcomes is much stronger here than in manufacturing where employment is declining towards two million; and, significantly, the largest sector in manufacturing by employment is the foundational sector of food processing which employs nearly 400,000 and is crucial to managing import penetration.Regionally, the foundational share is close to half of all employment in the depressed ex industrial districts of Wales so any foundational policies have anexplicit spatial dimension and are crucial to managing the growing gap between the regions." | ||
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/122563517/The-foundational-economy-rethinking-industrial-policy-Andrew-Bowman-Julie-Froud-Sukhdev-Johal-and-Karel-Williams) | (http://www.scribd.com/doc/122563517/The-foundational-economy-rethinking-industrial-policy-Andrew-Bowman-Julie-Froud-Sukhdev-Johal-and-Karel-Williams) | ||
=More Information= | |||
* book via http://www.amazon.co.uk/end-experiment-Andrew-Bowman/dp/0719096332 | |||
[[Category:Economics]] | [[Category:Economics]] | ||
Revision as of 02:01, 30 May 2014
Description
Andrew Bowman, Julie Froud et al. :
"Rather than hoping forlornly to recover what’s lost in British manufacturing, it would be better to start by thinking about what’s left in the foundational economy of mundane activities which sustains the infrastructure of everyday life. This idea of the “ foundational” introduces a new way of thinking and classifying economic activity, so we can begin by answering three questions: what is included in the foundational? Why does it matter? And how is it ubiquitous, persistent and policy relevant.The foundational economy provides the infrastructure of everyday life. The largest component of the foundational economy in the UK and elsewhere is health education and welfare because high incomes everywhere increase the demand for eds and meds. This demand is supplied in the UK by the state sector and a growing para state of publicly funded private employers in care homes,nursery education and such like. The other key component of the foundational is mundane activities like utilities, retail and food processing which produce necessary everyday goods and services which are used by everybody regardless of income or social status. In Britain, the utilities like water and electricity were privatised under Thatcher and joined supermarket retail and food processing in an augmented private sector.The foundational matters because it is the single most important determinant of our collective welfare and because it has a huge employment base of ten million or more. On a broad definition, some 30 % of the national workforce are employed in health, education and welfare with another 10% or more in the utilities, retail and food manufacture. At national level, the leverage of foundational policies on outcomes is much stronger here than in manufacturing where employment is declining towards two million; and, significantly, the largest sector in manufacturing by employment is the foundational sector of food processing which employs nearly 400,000 and is crucial to managing import penetration.Regionally, the foundational share is close to half of all employment in the depressed ex industrial districts of Wales so any foundational policies have anexplicit spatial dimension and are crucial to managing the growing gap between the regions." (http://www.scribd.com/doc/122563517/The-foundational-economy-rethinking-industrial-policy-Andrew-Bowman-Julie-Froud-Sukhdev-Johal-and-Karel-Williams)