Rational Investment In the Nonproductive Sphere And the Effectiveness of the Location of Production

While the development of the nation's entire economy is subordinate to the realization of the task of attaining a high living standard for the people, nonetheless a large part of the population's needs is chiefly satisfied by light industry and the food industry, by individual branches of machine-building, by agriculture, by transport â for the most part passenger transport â by the construction of housing and cultural, recreational, and service facilities, by trade and public catering. The economic content of the fixed capital of these branches is heterogeneous. Both productive and nonproductive fixed capital are involved here, and in certain branches (e.g., agriculture), only a small share of the productive capital serves the population directly. At the same time, to the extent that it serves the needs of the population, the fixed capital of all the aforementioned branches is characterized by a certain unity â by the communality of the economic purpose of goods produced or of services rendered. (>u>1>/u>) For this reason, in evaluating the effectiveness of production on a territorial scale, expenditures on all of the aforementioned branches directly serving the population should be compared on a regional basis.