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12.1: Economic Sectors

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    241220
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    Nearly everyone must have a job of some sort, but what sort of jobs are available to you is often conditioned by where you live. Regions specialize in different types of industries because almost every city, town or village connected to the global economy needs to sell something of value to outsiders so things unavailable locally may be purchased. If a location is unable or unwilling to buy and sell with outsiders, it must, therefore, be able to supply all of its own needs, a condition, or economic policy, known as autarky, that requires a region to achieve complete economic self-sufficiency. Since almost no group of people is able, or willing, to live without goods and services from beyond their borders, nearly every group trades local products for imported ones. Locations unable to produce any good or service worthy of trade will be economically weak. Without an ability to engage in trade, locations face extinction.

    Sign for Kahuku Sugar Mill, designated as a historical place, embellished with gears and machinery parts, under a clear blue sky.
    Figure 12-1: Kahuku, HI: This sugar mill, now a tourist attraction, is a reminder of how natural resources often spur industrialization.

    Basic and Non-Basic Industries

    Basic industries are economic activities that attract buyers from beyond the local region. They bringing wealth to the local region from some more distant region. These are export industries. A good example of a basic industry is the oil extraction in Saudi Arabia (or Texas). Essentially every local economic system must have at least one basic industry. Often this is called a base industry. Such industries permit a region to be economically independent from other economies. Without a local base industry, people in such a region would move away, or at least seek jobs in a neighboring region. Non-basic industries, on the other hand, are economic activities that do generate sales of a good or service to outsiders. For example, dentist offices are non-basic industries because dentists rarely attract customers from out of town. Most service sector jobs are non-basic in nature because they serve to circulate money within a local economy. Non-basic industries are ultimately dependent upon basic industries.


    This page titled 12.1: Economic Sectors is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Steven M. Graves via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.