Deck 8: From Field, Mine, and Factory

Question 1

How do semiskilled workers give themselves limited control over the pacing of their work?
A) work ahead
B) up the line
C) doubling up
D) slowing down

A)A and B
B)A and D
C)A, B, and C
D)A, B, and D
E)B, C, and D

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following does NOT describe unskilled labor/workers?

A)Unskilled workers are closely monitored.
B)Unskilled workers future career aspirations are likely to be nonexistent or modest.
C)Unskilled labor requires little, if any, training.
D)Women are overrepresented among unskilled workers.
E)Blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented among unskilled workers.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Order the following workers according to the level of skills required for the job (highest to lowest).
A) machine operators and assemblers
B) craft workers
C) laborers

A)A > B > C
B)B > C > A
C)B > A > C
D)C > B > A
E)C > A > B

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The Bureau of Labor Statistics distinguishes between unskilled and semiskilled work in terms of

A)length of training.
B)amount of formal schooling.
C)rate of pay.
D)eligibility for fringe benefits.
E)who supervises the work.

Question 5

Among unskilled workers

A)women are overrepresented.
B)Blacks are overrepresented.
C)college graduates are overrepresented.
D)immigrants are underrepresented.
E)there is no unionization.

Question 6

What is meant by the phrase "hollow corporations"?

A)corporations do not invest in technology
B)corporations seek investment from foreign capital
C)corporations subcontract their production abroad
D)corporations engaged in activities other than production such as investment in the stock market
E)corporations serve as front organizations for illegal activities such as drug smuggling

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT true about craft workers?

A)They are skilled workers.
B)They typically learn their trade through apprenticeship programs.
C)Many of their unions have historically made efforts to exclude women and minorities.
D)Automation has affected them more than other factory workers.
E)Compared with operatives, they have more autonomy over their jobs.

Question 8

Sweatshops traditionally involve all of the following EXCEPT

A)low wages.
B)harsh working environments.
C)child labor.
D)high levels of skill.
E)safety problems.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT classified as an extractive industry?

A)fishing
B)mining
C)agriculture
D)textiles
E)forestry

Question 10

In steel production, American manufacturers became less competitive because of

A)outdated technology.
B)outsourcing.
C)assembly-line techniques.
D)lack of raw materials.
E)inability to recruit workers.

Question 11

What is paper entrepreneurialism?

A)A growth in the manufacturing sector's paper usage.
B)A manipulation of balance sheets by firms to make more profits without making more or better products.
C)The finance industry's mechanism for making take-home pay appear to increase faster than inflation.
D)A federal policy to financially underwrite increased opportunities for communities to develop new industries.
E)The issuing of worthless stocks to manipulate the asking price for a company.

Question 12

Which of the followings is a common factor in the decline of the American automobile and steel industries?

A)failure to make enough investment in new technology
B)declining demand in industrializing countries
C)lack of government regulation
D)lack of unionized work force
E)insufficient executive compensation

Question 13

All of the following would be considered skilled workers EXCEPT

A)precision production operators.
B)mechanics
C)telephone-like repairers.
D)workers in construction trades.
E)assembly line workers.

Question 14

U.S.agricultural productivity has increased, and the U.S.has a highly productive extractive sector, a large and productive manufacturing sector, and an increasing service sector.Give these characteristics, according to Hodson and Sullivan, what term best characterizes American society?

A)post-industrial society
B)monopoly capitalism
C)advanced industrial society
D)democratic capitalism
E)social democracy

Question 15

Machine operators and assemblers are also called

A)craft workers.
B)laborers.
C)semiskilled workers.
D)unskilled workers.
E)skilled workers.

Question 16

Federal price supports

A)provide farmers with cash to maintain their farms during economic downturns.
B)establish a minimum for farm commodity prices.
C)are most beneficial to the smallest farms.
D)are on the rise in recent years.
E)are no longer used in the U.S.

Question 17

The manufacturing sector includes all of the following industries EXCEPT

A)automobiles.
B)chemicals.
C)mining.
D)textiles.
E)vegetable canning.

Question 18

Bench work is likely to be

A)well-paid.
B)repetitive.
C)highly skilled.
D)autonomous.
E)machine-paced.

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT true? As farm productivity has risen,

A)farm prices have fallen.
B)small farms have increased in number.
C)family-owned farms have begun to disappear.
D)energy costs and credit burdens have risen.
E)farmers have sought alternative employment.

Question 20

Craft workers

A)unlike unskilled workers, have lost many jobs because of increased automation.
B)in recent decades have been a major occupational destination of minorities trying to improve their economic situation.
C)like professionals, feel that only they have the expertise to determine how to best do a job.
D)often have jobs that are characterized by high stress due to repetitive tasks and quotas.
E)are too competitive with each other to organize effectively.

Question 21

The number of small farms owned by blacks in the South decreased because

A)they did not produce a high enough yield per acre.
B)the farms were too small to support a family.
C)federal price supports excluded the crops they raised.
D)international agricultural competition was too intense.
E)technology was unavailable to raise production.

Question 22

In general, increased capitalization needed to buy new technology:

A)displaces managers.
B)makes North American industries less competitive.
C)makes credit hard to obtain.
D)drives out small enterprises.
E)has no effect on workers.

Question 23

Some machine operators and assemblers are well-paid and others have low pay with poor benefits.What explains this difference?

A)Workers in the core economy are well-paid.
B)Workers with repetitive jobs are well-paid.
C)Workers with autonomous jobs are well-paid.
D)Because of affirmative action in skilled trades, women and minority workers are well-paid.
E)Workers in competitive industries are well-paid.

Question 24

A city offers a subsidy to encourage a company to build a new plant within its city limits.The subsidy represents an example of

A)paper entrepreneurialism.
B)a hollow corporation.
C)externalization.
D)outsourcing.
E)a two-tier wage structure.

Question 25

According to the text, a desirable manufacturing policy for the United States would emphasize

A)heightening productivity.
B)exporting jobs.
C)reducing wages at home to keep prices low.
D)reducing the federal expenditures on social programs.
E)manipulating balance sheets and profit margins.

Question 26

Why is semiskilled work often stressful?

A)Workers have to make many decisions in the process of doing their work.
B)The time pressures require that the work is done sloppily, sacrificing workers' pride in their work.
C)Semiskilled workers are often very hostile to each other.
D)Semiskilled work requires years of experience to become competent.
E)Semiskilled work is so easy to complete that it is rarely stressful.

Question 27

The Pacific Northwest of the U.S.and the Gulf Coast of Texas have which of these economic characteristics in common?

A)Both are areas with historically rich agricultural economies that have been eliminated due to environmental concerns.
B)Both have substantial problems with new immigrants flooding the labor market.
C)Both have very stable economies due to their rich natural resources and strong extractive industries.
D)Both rely heavily on a single extractive industry, leaving them vulnerable to economic downturns.
E)These two areas have nothing in common.

Question 28

Aquaculture refers to

A)fish farming.
B)testing swimming pools for micro-organisms.
C)providing adequate water to a community.
D)irrigation of farms.
E)river navigation.

Question 29

Paper entrepreneurialism refers to

A)developing new methods of producing paper.
B)use of paper money to stimulate the economy.
C)manipulating balance sheets and profit margins.
D)acquisition of newspapers by other media outlets.
E)issuing stock for start-up companies.

Question 30

A computer is labeled "American-made," but in fact many of its components were made and assembled abroad, but it is boxed and labeled in the United States.This type of production is characteristic of

A)continuous process technology.
B)small batch production.
C)mini-mills.
D)a "pay-for-knowledge" plan.
E)hollow corporations.

Question 31

Who pays a cost that has been externalized?

A)the company that incurs the expenditure
B)a division of the company different from the one that incurred the cost
C)the competitors
D)taxpayers and consumers
E)no one

Question 32

The worldwide mobility of capital is associated with all of the following EXCEPT

A)exporting jobs overseas in search of cheaper labor.
B)attempting to drive down wages at home.
C)paper entrepreneurialism.
D)plant closings.
E)reduced compensation for executives.

Question 33

How is the "declining middle" related to the reduced proportion of jobs in manufacturing?

A)The loss of jobs led to the decline of the Midwest.
B)The middle sector in the sectoral transformation was reduced in size.
C)In the jobs that were lost, wages had clustered around the middle range of income.
D)The remaining manufacturing jobs are no longer held by the middle class.
E)There are fewer jobs available in the downtown portions of cities.

Question 34

What does the success of the mini-mills suggest?

A)American automobiles are still the world's finest.
B)American textiles can compete internationally.
C)Small batch processing is cost-effective.
D)American steel can compete in specialized products.
E)International competition is less frequently a problem in the 1990s, compared with the 1980s.

Question 35

Mini-mills are found in the manufacture of

A)textiles.
B)chemicals.
C)autos.
D)baking products.
E)steel.

Question 36

Which of the following characterizes occupational communities?

A)collective identity
B)high pay
C)relative isolation
D)b and c
E)a and c

Question 37

Occupational solidarity is reinforced if the occupation is:

A)unskilled.
B)isolated.
C)unsupervised.
D)bilingual.
E)unethical.

Question 38

Employment losses in American textiles are due to all of the following EXCEPT:

A)a decline in demand for textiles.
B)less costly foreign goods.
C)the export of jobs by American textile factories.
D)improved technology in Europe.
E)strong trade associations in other countries.

Question 39

Precision production operators are considered to be

A)laborers.
B)unskilled workers.
C)skilled craft workers.
D)professionals.
E)mechanics.

Question 40

What characteristic(s) of work give craft workers relative security from layoffs?

A)Craft workers are generally pleasant coworkers.
B)The skills of craft workers are difficult and time-consuming to acquire, making them harder to replace than less skilled workers.
C)The tasks required of most craft workers are too diverse to be easily automated.
D)Craft workers do not have any additional security from layoffs-they are as vulnerable as any other workers.
E)both b and c

Question 41

Downturns in the housing industry strongly affect which other industry?

A)agriculture
B)fisheries
C)services
D)forestry
E)mining

Question 42

Technological development has affected the demand for many types of workers.An exception is

A)construction workers.
B)steel workers.
C)assembly line workers.
D)miners.
E)textile workers.

Question 43

What real costs do local communities often assume through negotiations with relocating companies?

A)build industrial parks on city-owned property.
B)under funding for local social services.
C)company's tax cuts (lower local revenues) and subsidized utilities.
D)build additional local infrastructure (such as streets, sewers).
E)all of the above.

Question 44

One of the reasons the American automakers lost so much of the market share is:

A)American drivers substantially decreased their demand for cars, opting to travel by mass transportation instead.
B)American automakers focused their efforts on developing automobiles that use alternative sources of energy.
C)American automakers preferred to produce higher-priced cars and light trucks that had a higher profit margin.
D)American drivers' taste in cars changes dramatically from one year to the next, making product planning highly volatile.
E)American automakers concentrated on updating manufacturing equipment and could not maintain market share during the transition.

Question 45

What does the text say about the decline of manufacturing jobs in North America?

A)increased productivity makes the employment decline inevitable
B)loss of competitiveness with international producers caused a loss of jobs.
C)American workers do not want to work in factories
D)both a and b
E)all of the above

Question 46

The authors argue that "advanced industrial society" is a preferable term to "postindustrial society" because

A)knowledge work will be so significant
B)agriculture is less important
C)there is still a smaller but highly productive manufacturing sector
D)productivity is hard to measure
E)industrial is a synonym for manufacturing

Question 47

According to the text, Italy and Germany have a significant share of specialty textile manufacturing because of

A)technological innovations.
B)customized products.
C)trade associations.
D)apprenticeship programs.
E)all of the above

Question 48

Why did Japan take the lead in steel production? All of the following are reasonable explanations EXCEPT:

A)Demand declined in the industrialized countries.
B)The Japanese are inherently superior steelworkers.
C)The American steel plants failed to invest in the latest technologies.
D)Steel is hard to transport.
E)Steel is vertically integrated with iron ore and coal mining.

Question 49

The extractive sector employs relatively few workers because of

A)the sector's high productivity.
B)the relative unattractiveness of farm work.
C)tight immigration laws.
D)stiff international competition.
E)federal price supports.

Question 50

The city council is divided on the subject of tough new environmental controls for manufacturing enterprises.The opponents of the plan say it creates a "bad business climate." The opponents are supporting:

A)paper entrepreneurialism.
B)a hollow corporation.
C)externalization.
D)outsourcing.
E)a two-tier wage structure.