Deck 11: the Economy and Work

Question 1

Someone whose work involves giving acupuncture to dogs in order to relieve the dogs' stress is:

A) located in Asia.
B) a service worker.
C) a con artist.
D) poorly paid.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In a capitalist system,what do workers have available to sell?

A) raw materials
B) stocks and bonds
C) their own labor
D) different kinds of commodities

Answer 2

C

Question 3

New innovations in farming like mechanized seed spreaders and new techniques of crop rotation were part of what macro-level social change?

A) the Instrumental Revolution
B) the Information Revolution
C) the Great Depression
D) the Agricultural Revolution

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In 2008 and 2009,the United States government initiated a large-scale economic bailout of the banking and auto industries,in which the government invested enormous amounts of money,becoming the majority shareholder in some corporations.According to the text this means that:

A) the United States is an example of pure capitalism.
B) the United States is a mostly capitalist nation, but it also has a degree of socialism in government subsidies to businesses.
C) under President Barack Obama, the United States has a socialist economy.
D) the United States has always been primarily socialist, so the bailout is nothing new.

Question 5

Which change was associated with the Industrial Revolution?

A) decreased life expectancy
B) increased infant mortality
C) a significant population boom
D) less stable and reliable access to food supplies

Question 6

Why did so many people feel DISSATISfIED working on assembly lines?

A) Assembly lines were not a very efficient way to produce things.
B) Assembly lines made goods more expensive.
C) Assembly lines forced people from all different racial and ethnic groups to work together.
D) Workers never had the satisfaction of seeing the finished product.

Question 7

The economy is not only about money but also about:

A) the people who are most important to an individual's sense of self.
B) the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
C) encouraging cooperation over competition.
D) rituals and beliefs that divide the world into the sacred and the profane.

Question 8

Advertising,engineering,marketing,product design,and web design are all examples of ________ work.

A) traditional
B) knowledge
C) industrial
D) computer-assisted

Question 9

The economic system based on collective ownership of the means of production and collective distribution of goods and services is called:

A) capitalism.
B) classical liberalism.
C) communism.
D) socialism.

Question 10

Someone who works primarily with information and develops or uses knowledge in the workplace is called a(n)________ worker.

A) knowledge
B) service
C) industrial
D) social

Question 11

What technological development is most associated with the Information Revolution?

A) the jet airplane
B) the microchip
C) spreadsheets and email
D) container ships

Question 12

What new technology helped to bring about the Industrial Revolution?

A) the jet airplane
B) the automobile
C) the Internet
D) the steam engine

Question 13

"fordism" is a system characterized by the increasingly efficient mass production of goods.Why is this system called "fordism"?

A) Many of the changes that led to this economic system happened during the administration of President Gerald ford.
B) It is named after the famous filmmaker John ford, whose movies depicted the transformation to an industrial economy.
C) It is an acronym for fully Operational Research Design, the method by which the economy modernized.
D) It is named after Henry ford, who is credited with inventing the assembly line.

Question 14

Which of the following is one of the primary principles of capitalism?

A) privatization of the means of production
B) collective distribution of goods and services
C) a focus on meeting the basic needs of all citizens
D) government regulation of industry

Question 15

In which century did the Industrial Revolution begin?

A) 1600s
B) 1700s
C) 1800s
D) 1900s

Question 16

What change caused people to migrate to cities from rural areas?

A) the switch to a manufacturing economy
B) the development of crop rotation and better animal husbandry techniques
C) the switch from a manufacturing economy to an information economy
D) the emancipation of slaves in the United States

Question 17

How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work and the economy?

A) It has slowed down the process of globalization.
B) It has made it less likely that individuals will be able to work from home.
C) It has shifted the economy toward the production of knowledge and services.
D) It has made companies more likely to manufacture and sell goods within a single nation.

Question 18

How are workers' situations different in socialist,as opposed to capitalist,economies?

A) In a socialist economy, workers have less protection from the welfare state.
B) In a socialist economy, workers are more vulnerable to technological innovation eliminating jobs.
C) In a socialist economy, workers do not enjoy the same consumption patterns.
D) In a socialist economy, workers' jobs are more vulnerable to elimination, resulting from the movement of transnational capital.

Question 19

According to the text,what is the most extreme form of socialism called?

A) capitalism
B) communism
C) fordism
D) conflict theory

Question 20

In 2005,teaching assistants at the University of Oregon went on strike.Which aspect of their job made it easier for them to strike than most American workers?

A) The public is much more sympathetic to academic workers.
B) They have better contracts.
C) They have more cultural capital and therefore can better strategize about how to make a strike succeed.
D) Their jobs cannot be moved overseas.

Question 21

How did the Industrial Revolution create "work" in the modern sense?

A) In preindustrial economies, most work happened in the home.
B) Work is only possible when there is a wide variety of consumer goods on the market.
C) It was the first time class struggle existed in society.
D) It made the worker more autonomous.

Question 22

What do you think Barbara Ehrenreich would say about efforts to reform welfare that tried to move people off welfare rolls and into minimum-wage jobs?

A) She would disapprove because she thinks that low-wage work is demeaning and insufficient to survive on.
B) She would approve because she thinks that welfare is demeaning.
C) She would disapprove because she thinks that minimum-wage jobs are better filled by new immigrants.
D) She would approve because she believes that welfare breeds dependency and low self-esteem.

Question 23

What serious social problem might be made worse if more people were encouraged to telecommute?

A) poverty
B) intellectual property theft
C) cancer and other new health problems
D) alienation and loneliness

Question 24

American workers often describe themselves as "working for the weekend." Karl Marx would say that this sentiment indicates that in our relationship to work we are:

A) alienated from our fellow workers.
B) part of a postindustrial economy.
C) working in the service industry.
D) alienated from human essence.

Question 25

Which of the following is among the benefits of telecommuting?

A) It draws more people to large urban areas.
B) It encourages workers to keep a rigid work schedule.
C) Businesses get increased productivity and fewer sick days.
D) It makes it easier for workers to brainstorm and share ideas.

Question 26

How is service work different from manufacturing work?

A) Ever since the Information Revolution, service jobs have become much less common than manufacturing jobs.
B) Service workers are much less likely than manufacturing workers to be scrutinized by a supervisor.
C) In service work, unlike manufacturing work, it is common for workers' expectations to conflict with those of customers.
D) Service work is much better paid than manufacturing work.

Question 27

In Great Britain,the government owns the British Broadcasting Corporation,or BBC,which is the world's largest television and radio broadcasting service.This tells you that Great Britain is:

A) an example of pure socialism.
B) deregulated.
C) at least partially socialist.
D) mostly capitalist.

Question 28

Why did Karl Marx believe that workers in a capitalist economy experience alienation?

A) Shallow consumerism does not give them something to believe in and work for.
B) Increasingly, they are surrounded by images and representations that do not really seem to relate to reality.
C) They are often poor and deprived of their basic needs.
D) They are paid for their labor but do not own the things they produce.

Question 29

Which of the following social problems might be alleviated if more Americans were encouraged to telecommute?

A) pollution
B) anomie
C) the breakdown of social networks
D) crime

Question 30

How could telecommuting increase worker productivity?

A) It allows employees to spend less time with their families.
B) There is no office gossip to distract telecommuters.
C) People who work from home tend to work longer hours.
D) Telecommuters must usually provide a concrete measure of their accomplishments, not just show up.

Question 31

"from each according to his ability,to each according to his need." This slogan could only be fully realized with:

A) pure capitalism.
B) a mixture of capitalism and socialism.
C) a mixture of capitalism and communism.
D) pure communism.

Question 32

How could the Information Revolution affect urbanization?

A) Cities might grow because technology makes them even more attractive places to live.
B) It could not affect urbanization at all.
C) Cities might shrink because people will spend even more time in direct contact with one another.
D) Cities might shrink because people can live anywhere and still work at the same job.

Question 33

How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work?

A) Employees are less easily distracted by outside influences since they can remain on the Internet working.
B) The importance of the physical space in which work is done has been greatly diminished.
C) Employee compensation has greatly increased.
D) Productivity has declined.

Question 34

Workers in large department stores usually are paid on commission,which means that they are in direct competition with their fellow employees.According to Karl Marx,this makes them:

A) part of the Industrial Revolution.
B) premodern.
C) alienated.
D) knowledge workers.

Question 35

What does Karl Marx claim is true about class conflict?

A) All human history is the history of class conflicts.
B) Class conflict is a product of the Industrial Revolution.
C) Class conflict was first experienced during the Middle Ages, but it was inherited by modern society.
D) Class conflict is uniquely a feature of the Information Revolution.

Question 36

According to Karl Marx,where does surplus value come from?

A) selling goods to overseas markets where demand is higher
B) finding ever-cheaper ways of processing raw materials
C) paying workers less than the value of what they create
D) the added value owners bring to a manufactured product

Question 37

What changes in the economy would be associated with travel agents hiring inmates in minimum-security prisons to take calls and schedule vacations for customers?

A) the increasingly socialist features of the American economy
B) the Industrial Revolution
C) the growth of information technology
D) the rise of capitalism

Question 38

These days,many customer service representatives we talk to over the phone are based in India.Which of the following terms applies to this phenomenon?

A) unionization
B) collective resistance
C) supersectors
D) the death of distance

Question 39

According to Barbara Ehrenreich,which of these behaviors can help those with minimum-wage service jobs to get ahead and move up in the world?

A) save at least 10 percent of their paychecks every month
B) avoid having children
C) go back to school
D) none of them; there is no way for minimum-wage workers to move up in the world

Question 40

Cuba's communist government has recently introduced reforms that make it easier to attract tourists,and many skilled professionals have started working in the tourism industry to earn more money,regardless of their degrees.Of what is this a sign?

A) the impending collapse of the Cuban government
B) the poor health of Cuba's former leader fidel Castro
C) the important role the U.S. government plays in Cuba
D) the increasingly important role capitalism plays in Cuba

Question 41

What is it called when nations compete to attract transnational corporations by undercutting their citizens' wages or offering tax incentives?

A) collective resistance strategies
B) the collective distribution of goods and services
C) the race to the bottom
D) postindustrial union bargaining

Question 42

What effect did the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 have on unions?

A) It gave unions greater power.
B) It prohibited government workers from unionizing.
C) It instituted limits on secondary strikes and boycotts.
D) It made unions illegal.

Question 43

According to critics of globalization,what DISADVANTAGES result from increased international trade?

A) Multinational corporations will increasingly shape the policies of governments.
B) More consumer goods will be produced.
C) Prices of goods and services will decline.
D) People will gain exposure to different cultures.

Question 44

Corporations whose decision making,production,and distribution operations are spread all over the world are characteristic of:

A) industrialization.
B) runaway shops.
C) deep integration.
D) shallow integration.

Question 45

According to Robin Leidner's fast food,fast Talk,what are the consequences of scripting workers' interactions with customers?

A) It makes interactions more fluid.
B) It makes communication easier and leads to happier workers.
C) It makes customers feel important.
D) It is damaging to workers and suppresses their real selves.

Question 46

Which area of the economy has seen increases in union membership since the early 1970s?

A) the information economy
B) the manufacturing sector
C) the public sector
D) the private sector

Question 47

Tactics that let workers take back some degree of control over the conditions in which they work are called:

A) knowledge work.
B) resistance strategies.
C) service work.
D) collective bargaining.

Question 48

The cultural and economic changes that result from dramatic increases in international trade and exchange are called:

A) commodity stops.
B) runaway shops.
C) globalization.
D) shallow integration.

Question 49

The fact that almost all of the small electronics used in the United States are made in Asia is an illustration of:

A) the Industrial Revolution.
B) globalization.
C) the rise of cybernetics.
D) collective resistance.

Question 50

How has union membership changed in recent years?

A) Membership has steeply declined.
B) It has not changed.
C) Membership has greatly increased.
D) Membership has slightly increased.

Question 51

Who led campaigns to end child labor and increase workplace safety?

A) women's groups
B) chambers of commerce
C) unions
D) the federal government

Question 52

What economic change has made it more difficult for workers to strike effectively?

A) the increasing availability of communications technology
B) a strong, organized working class in the United States
C) the ease with which manufacturing firms can move operations to another country
D) the increasing role played by nonprofits and Third Sector organizations

Question 53

Which of the following groups of workers would be LEAST likely to strike successfully?

A) paramedics who work for private health-care organizations
B) teachers in public schools
C) garbage collectors
D) workers who make microchips at a Silicon Valley plant

Question 54

When liquor stores in the United States import wine made entirely from french grapes and bottled in france or beer brewed from grain and hops grown in Holland,it is an example of:

A) shallow integration.
B) deep integration.
C) postindustrial work.
D) transnational corporations.

Question 55

When office workers hang pictures in their cubicles or waste time daydreaming while on the clock,it is an example of:

A) individual resistance.
B) slacking.
C) sticking it to the man.
D) collective resistance.

Question 56

Although it may not seem like much,when an office worker brings in a plant to brighten up his cubicle,it is a(n):

A) act of collective resistance.
B) sign of nonalienation in labor.
C) postmodern gesture.
D) act of individual resistance.

Question 57

How are strictly controlled workers within bureaucracies different from robots?

A) Human workers need forms of upkeep.
B) Human workers can resist and undermine the bureaucratic restraints that limit their autonomy.
C) Human workers are more reliable.
D) Human workers are cheaper.

Question 58

firms that purposely transcend national borders so that their products can be manufactured at sites all over the world are called:

A) transnational corporations.
B) sweatshops.
C) runaway shops.
D) globalization.

Question 59

How are strikes different from acts of resistance,like daydreaming on the job?

A) They are solitary.
B) They are unethical.
C) They are collective.
D) They are illegal.

Question 60

An association of workers who organize to improve their economic status and working conditions is called:

A) a union.
B) the third sector.
C) a nonprofit.
D) a sweatshop.

Question 61

Even in the United States,there is some degree of socialism.Name three programs that would qualify as socialism in our capitalist society.

Question 62

According to the U.S.General Accounting Office,an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law concerning wages,overtime,child labor,safety and health,or industrial regulation is classified as a(n):

A) postmodern corporation.
B) runaway shop.
C) independent contractor.
D) sweatshop.

Question 63

Why would a company outsource or contract out labor it might otherwise employ its own staff to perform?

A) Its customers demand it.
B) It is cheaper.
C) The staff available is not fully qualified.
D) It cares about quality.

Question 64

Donald Roy's classic study of the workplace called "Banana Time" showed that:

A) knowledge workers need more coffee breaks than service workers do.
B) communities of coping emerge with co-workers during coffee breaks.
C) telecommuting will destroy the sense of community among co-workers.
D) play emerges in even the most harsh and strenuous work environments.

Question 65

Barbara Ehrenreich,in her book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)Getting By in America,found numerous ways service workers were being exploited.List and describe three of these.

Question 66

How are "gold farms," such as those set up to play World of Warcraft,different from traditional sweatshops?

A) They usually meet minimum working standards for health and safety.
B) They purchase and consume virtual goods instead of material goods.
C) They may not pay much better wages, but the work is much more entertaining.
D) They exploit workers to produce virtual goods instead of material goods.

Question 67

The Industrial Revolution changed not only working conditions but also many other elements of daily life.List three.

Question 68

What is a sweatshop?

A) a workplace whose workforce is composed primarily of white people in the service sector, whose jobs make them sweat
B) a workplace that manufactures sporting goods
C) a workplace that purposely transcends national borders
D) a workplace with poor working conditions, below-standard wages, and long hours

Question 69

The Information Revolution has changed many things about the economy,but most other aspects of life have remained unchanged.Describe two things that are not different.

Question 70

What are networks of corporations,manufacturers,distributors,and consumer outlets that create products called?

A) assembly lines
B) worker co-ops
C) commodity chains
D) runaway shops

Question 71

What are two types of individual acts of resistance and two types of collective resistance in which workers may engage to fundamentally change working conditions?

Question 72

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for many soup kitchens and other groups that provide food to the homeless and the poor.It is also one of the biggest days of the year for volunteers,as many more people decide to donate their time and efforts,making them,even if just for the day,part of the:

A) third sector.
B) global commodity chain.
C) postmodern economy.
D) contingent workforce.

Question 73

Identify three things from which workers,according to Karl Marx,are alienated in an Industrial or Postindustrial economy.

Question 74

Describe two advantages and two disadvantages to telecommuting.

Question 75

Describe three ways the rise of the industrial economy increased levels of stratification by class,race,and gender.

Question 76

Think about the process by which most athletic shoes are made.Which part of the global commodity chain for these shoes would you be most surprised to find in Indonesia?

A) the advertising firm that scripted the commercial
B) the forest where rubber trees are grown to make the elastic parts of the shoes
C) the factory where the shoes are assembled and sewed together
D) the farms where the cotton is grown

Question 77

What term is used for the group of nonprofit organizations that are designed to run as cost-effectively as possible and to direct any earnings back into the causes they support?

A) technology firms
B) the third sector
C) multinational corporations
D) transnational corporations

Question 78

Which of the following groups is engaged in contingent work?

A) independent contractors
B) teachers
C) service workers
D) knowledge workers

Question 79

In "The Credential Society" sociologist Randall Collins argues that:

A) the fewer credentials a worker has, the more money he or she makes in the long run.
B) college provides a credential that can be enormously valuable over the long run.
C) high school credentials earn a worker, on average, $45,000 per year.
D) the more college credentials (degrees) a person has, the less value he or she has to society.

Question 80

List three of the "supersectors" that make up the American economy today.Are there any supersectors that do not involve knowledge or service work?