Question 1

Walmart designs very little of what it sells and produces next to nothing. List one economic benefit and one economic negative to this model of business.

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Question 2

Your textbook identifies five different types of capitalism. Which form of capitalism is most dominant today?

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Question 3

What are portfolio workers?

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Question 4

Being a private secretary was once a very prestigious male occupation but lost its prestige because:

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As more women entered the field of secretarial work, it became associated with a clerical position and lost its prestige as a prestigious male occupation. This is reflected in the common portrayal of secretaries in popular media as female and subservient to male bosses. The other options (A, B, and C) do not fully explain the shift in prestige from private secretary to a lower-status occupation.

Question 5

Frederick Winslow Taylor invented the moving assembly line.

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Frederick Winslow Taylor did not invent the moving assembly line. It was actually invented by Ransom Olds in the early 1900s. However, Taylor is often credited with developing the principles of scientific management, which helped to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity.

Question 6

List two main ideas of Fordism.

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Question 7

Americans spend more time at work than do citizens of other advanced industrial countries. Provide three reasons for this phenomena.

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Question 8

A 37-year-old is not working for pay but has gone back to school to earn an MBA. He is waiting to look for work until he completes his degree. Because he is over the age of 16, however, he would be counted as part of the unemployment rate

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To be counted in the unemployment rate, an individual must be actively looking for work and unable to find it. Since the person is not currently looking for work, they would not be counted as part of the unemployment rate.

Question 9

What is Fordism? How is it connected to unions and collective bargaining agreements? Why do most sociologists think it broke down in the 1970s?

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Question 10

Define work from a sociological perspective.

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Question 11

List two central tenets of Frederick Winslow Taylor's "scientific management."

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Question 12

The use of part-time workers has become increasingly common.

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According to various studies and statistics, the use of part-time workers has indeed become more prevalent in recent years. Many companies choose to hire part-time employees as a way to save on labor costs and gain more flexibility in their staffing arrangements.

Question 13

Americans spend more time at work than do citizens of other advanced industrial countries.

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According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Americans work an average of 1,780 hours per year, which is more than the average for other advanced industrial countries such as Japan, Germany, and France.

Question 14

Describe the main characteristics of the global division of labor.

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Question 15

List three central features of global capitalism.

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Question 16

Compare and contrast the five types of corporate capitalism (family, managerial, welfare, institutional, and global). How can their rise and/or demise be explained?

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Question 17

According to your textbook, the growth of the knowledge economy can be associated with:

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The growth of the knowledge economy is associated with more unpredictability in long-term job security as industries and technologies quickly evolve, leading to the need for workers to continuously learn and adapt new skills. This can result in a lack of job stability for some workers in certain fields.

Question 18

Work plays an important role in structuring people's lives. Yet in the nineteenth century, Karl Marx argued that work in the modern industrial society (capitalism) is inherently alienating. Discuss the significance of his concept in light of more recent research on work and the economy in the late modern society.

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Question 19

Provide three reasons why labor unions have become increasingly obsolete in the twenty-first century.

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Question 20

The "new" economy in which ideas, information, and forms of knowledge support and sustain innovation and growth is most commonly called the:

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Quiz 14: Work and Economic Life