Deck 18: The Economy Concepts and History

Question 1

The basic economic problem facing societies is how to divide resources.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Since scarcity has been eliminated, there is no need for decisions regarding what, how, and for whom to produce resources.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Custom, command, and market are systems of economic decision making.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Natural material things, called land, consist of machinery, factories, objects.

Question 5

The factors of production include land, labor, and capital.

Question 6

Resources are versatile and finite.

Question 7

The economy consists of five sectors.

Question 8

In the last stage of industrialization, most workers are employed in the tertiary sector.

Question 9

Professions are unskilled occupations requiring specialized, theoretical training.

Question 10

The corporation is an enterprise organized for small scale production.

Question 11

One of the problems of the corporation is the concentration of corporate power, called oligopoly.

Question 12

Trade unions are growing in influence as the ranks of blue collar workers increase.

Question 13

For the past 200 years, economic decision making in the United States has been entirely dependent on custom or tradition.

Question 14

Entrepreneurship, together with labor, land, and capital, are called factors of production.

Question 15

Technology, time, and efficiency are the real factors of production in industrial societies.

Question 16

The opportunity cost is what each economy sacrifices when it chooses to produce one thing rather than another in order to attain a particular goal.

Question 17

Economic output has no limits: production possibilities are limitless.

Question 18

Specialization of labor is a recent economic innovation, coming to the fore only in the twentieth century.

Question 19

Money is a more efficient medium of exchange than trade or barter.

Question 20

An economy is a social system because values, patterns of behavior, and expectations emerge around a system of production.

Question 21

The economy is a cultural system because people hold specific statuses and play the roles corresponding to the statuses.

Question 22

The transition from a mainly agricultural to a chiefly industrial mode of production was marked by conflict because of the changes in class structure and in values and beliefs.

Question 23

Karl Marx wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Question 24

The religious ideas embodied in Protestantism led to the adoption of mass production methods.

Question 25

The company, owned and managed by a single owner or a partnership, was the predominant form of business organization up to the middle of the 19th century.

Question 26

The disadvantages of sole proprietorships are evident in the high number of bankruptcies that occur in new businesses.

Question 27

In a monopoly, corporations merge for the purpose of cornering a market.

Question 28

In the condition called "interlocking directorates," executive officers in one corporation are members of the board of directors of other corporations.

Question 29

In multinationalism, one corporation acquires controlling shares in other corporations, often in totally different industries.

Question 30

Which resources are scarce in every society?

A) Fertile land
B) Wheat and corn
C) Food, shelter, and protective coverings
D) Sufficient males to mate with all the females

Question 31

The primary function of the economy as a social institution is to:

A) convict felons in Common Pleas Court
B) provide a blueprint showing people how to survive
C) show people how to obtain goods and services without having to pay for them
D) none of the above

Question 32

Each society must make the following decisions of an economic nature regarding the:

A) time, place, and quantity of production
B) assessment, collection, and counting of taxes
C) measurement of land, water, and minerals
D) production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services

Question 33

Resources are defined as:

A) anything that is manmade
B) anything that is produced in factories
C) anything that is derived from natural ingredients
D) everything that is needed for the production of goods and services including human energy

Question 34

Land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship are called:

A) raw materials
B) impetus to upward mobility
C) factors of production
D) external devices

Question 35

A society's economic system is largely determined by its concept of:

A) truth
B) property
C) happiness
D) justice

Question 36

In most societies, ownership of property takes one of three forms:

A) restricted, guarded, and private
B) esthetic, visible, tangible
C) communal, private, public
D) ambiguous, hermetic, contraceptive

Question 37

What does one call property owned by the state in the name of the people?

A) public
B) private
C) common law
D) communal

Question 38

The foremost advantage of a corporation is its:

A) ability to accumulate vast amounts of capital in a short time
B) capacity for protracted periods of employment
C) ability to profit from the labor of its employees
D) necessity to exhibit the latest technology

Question 39

The main problem facing societies with a surplus is:

A) how to get rid of it
B) what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom to produce it
C) there is no problem: it is divided equally
D) how to keep it away from enemies

Question 40

In industrial societies, consumption:

A) must always be limited
B) maintains and fuels demand
C) is not a factor
D) is viewed unfavorably

Question 41

Which economic orientations govern Western industrial societies?

A) Tradition
B) Command
C) Free Market
D) Both market and command

Question 42

Material objects found in nature are called:

A) land
B) capital
C) labor
D) time

Question 43

Efficiency, in economic terminology, means:

A) using existing technology
B) obtaining the highest output in the least amount of time
C) ignoring the time factor
D) making do with as few workers as possible

Question 44

The production possibilities frontier refers to:

A) the amount of each commodity that can be produced given available resources
B) unlimited production of one commodity
C) limitless output of commodities
D) none of the above

Question 45

Specialized division of labor in industrial societies can make workers feel that they:

A) have lack of control
B) have no sense of accomplishment
C) are an anonymous group
D) none of the above
E) all of the above

Question 46

In the market system of today:

A) one must barter cows for autos in a marketplace
B) one must seek someone who wants the product one wants to sell
C) money is used in exchange for goods
D) all exchanges take place through the use of plastic credit cards

Question 47

The presidents of American banks and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board are a part of:

A) the economic social system
B) the economic cultural system
C) neither the economic nor the cultural social systems
D) BOTH the economic AND the cultural social systems

Question 48

A member of a Navajo tribe can graze his sheep on clan land, but he cannot sell it. Navajo land is what kind of property?

A) Public
B) Private
C) Communal
D) Indian

Question 49

The market system consists of planning by:

A) inducement
B) direction
C) command
D) tradition

Question 50

Consumer sovereignty means that:

A) production depends on supply and demand
B) consumers create demand
C) producers supply what is demanded
D) none of the above
E) all of the above

Question 51

In contemporary market systems, competition:

A) is quite strong
B) is diluted by private and state monopolies
C) does not exist
D) has been replaced by planning

Question 52

Socialism and communism both call for:

A) government controlling parts of the economy for the common good
B) revolutionary change
C) abolition of private property
D) totalitarian government and dictatorship of the proletariat

Question 53

The Protestant Ethic supported capitalism through the religious doctrine that praised:

A) hard work and thrift
B) predestination
C) turning the other cheek
D) buying indulgences

Question 54

The Industrial Revolution shifted the emphasis in ownership from land to:

A) gold and silver
B) the means of production: machines, tools, materials
C) serfs
D) precious spices

Question 55

With the shift from family capitalism to industrial capitalism, the important unit became the:

A) corporation
B) government
C) commune
D) union

Question 56

When a few powerful corporations dominate an industry, the condition is called:

A) a free market for all
B) oligopoly
C) government control
D) none of the above

Question 57

One of the side effects of advertising is that it:

A) supplies the real needs of people
B) creates artificial demands
C) helps the wealthy get richer
D) none of the above
E) all of the above

Question 58

When the American Cigar Co. buys a pizza chain, the process is called:

A) monopoly
B) diversification
C) planned obsolescence
D) takeover attempt

Question 59

Royal Dutch Shell Oil Co. has branches in Holland, Britain, the United States, and France. This kind of corporation is called:

A) closed
B) multinational
C) restricted
D) monopolistic

Question 60

Today, most workers in the United States are employed in the:

A) primary sector
B) secondary sector
C) tertiary sector
D) quaternary sector

Question 61

Unions face WHICH of the following problems?

A) Antitrust laws
B) Increasing white-collar membership
C) Expansion of the manufacturing sector
D) Loss of membership

Question 62

The following factors are important in production:

A) water, space, air
B) earth, wind, fire
C) animal, vegetable, object
D) technology, time, efficiency

Question 63

Land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship:

A) must be combined in the production of goods and services
B) must be used separately to produce goods and services
C) have no function in the production of goods and services
D) create a balance between humans and their environment

Question 64

What kind of a system is the economic institution?

A) Cultural and social
B) Religious and educational
C) Semantic and semitic
D) Typically American

Question 65

Resources are defined as:

A) everything needed for the production of goods and services including human energy
B) everything found in the ground
C) everything that is made by people
D) none of the above

Question 66

Professionalization means:

A) everyone is called by a title
B) the same as unemployment
C) there is a decrease in polarization
D) having theoretical knowledge in addition to training

Question 67

A corporation:

A) is a public institution
B) has the advantage of being able to accumulate vast amounts of capital in a short period of time
C) can afford to pay for the latest research and technology
D) none of the above
E) all of the above

Question 68

Capitalism's roots can be found in:

A) feudal agriculture
B) Christianity
C) machine-based production
D) dialectic materialism

Question 69

When a business has multiple absentee owners with limited liability it is a:

A) partnership
B) proprietorship
C) trust
D) corporation

Question 70

A professional trained in a narrow abstract field is a:

A) vice president
B) specialist
C) bureaucrat
D) foreman

Question 71

Which status is in transition and difficult to classify in corporate relationships?

A) foreman
B) union official
C) stock holder
D) CEO

Question 72

The main function of organized labor is to:

A) manage large corporations
B) strike
C) bargain collectively
D) regulate safety

Question 73

Extraction of raw materials occurs in which sector of the economy?

A) Primary
B) Secondary
C) Tertiary
D) Quartenary

Question 74

An accountant is part of which sector?

A) primary
B) secondary
C) tertiary
D) quartenary

Question 75

To use up or possibly destroy the final products of production is to:

A) distribute
B) consume
C) allocate
D) appropriate

Question 76

Products of the economy used in production, as opposed to gifts of nature, are:

A) land
B) labor
C) capital
D) entrepreneurship

Question 77

The practice of U. S. corporations moving their production facilities abroad is called:

A) multinationalism
B) outsourcing
C) diversification
D) oligopoly

Question 78

The difference between an average worker's salary and that of the average CEO has:

A) gradually narrowed
B) remained stable
C) slightly increased
D) greatly increased

Question 79

An example of resource versatility is:

A) land used for both mining and recreation
B) swimming, fishing, and boating in the same lake
C) stringing beads in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, and teaching bead stringing at night
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 80

In economic terms, every action entails:

A) fixed costs
B) risk
C) opportunity costs
D) prime costs