Levels of Economic Development

Two Revolutions The Industrial Revolution Began in England during the 1780’s and spread 1 st to the US and Europe Factories made it possible do secondary activities cheaply and efficiently providing more goods and improving peoples lives The Post-Industrial or Information revolution. Tertiary and Quaternary activities are facilitated by computers and internet providing information and entertainment services cheaply and efficiently

Three Levels of Development All of the World’s Economies can divided into 3 levels Pre-Industrial: Countries that have not yet had an industrial revolution Industrial: Countries with factories that are developing the ability to mass manufacture Post-Industrial: Countries like the US that are now entering “The information Age”

This chart shows how the type of activity that dominates an economy changes at the various stages

Pre-Industrial Economies “undeveloped countries” Primary activities dominate the economy As a result there are few goods are produced and thus few are available Wages are therefore low. Industrialized and Post-Industrial countries buy natural resources cheap and sell goods at high prices Result High profits for the very few Poverty for the rest

Industrial Economies “Developing Countries” Secondary activities Dominate the Economy Goods become more available Pollution becomes a problem Unless Unions organize factory workers wages may be low resulting in poverty Companies from Post-industrial countries run factories and take the profits home making the people and the country poorer

Post-Industrial Economies Tertiary and Quaternary activities begin to dominate the economy Goods and Services and entertainment become plentiful cheap Secondary (Industrial) activities decrease as factory jobs are replace by robots or are exported Unless wages for service (tertiary) work rise the ‘middle class may shrink and poverty may increase