Deck 11: The Economy, Work, and Working

Question 1

What 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
E) more reliable housing conditions

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Advertising, engineering, marketing, product design, and web design are all examples of:

A) service work.
B) knowledge work.
C) industrial work.
D) computer-assisted work.
E) leisure and hospitality work.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Given that the greater the division of labor in a society, the greater the degree of inequality, which type of economic system would you expect to be the most equal?

A) industrial
B) information
C) postmodern
D) hunting and gathering
E) horticultural

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The theory that the capacity of microchips will double every 18 months is called:

A) progress.
B) Moore's Law.
C) the Information Revolution.
D) knowledge work.
E) telecommuting.

Question 5

Why did so many people dislike working on assembly lines?

A) Assembly lines weren't 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.
E) Workers wanted to do more with machines.

Question 6

Welfare agencies run by for-profit firms are an example of:

A) socialism.
B) postmodernism.
C) capitalism shaping human service institutions.
D) the increases in efficiency that can be gained through technological innovation.
E) an economic system based on the collective ownership of the means of production.

Question 7

Cell phone users can buy a ringtone version of a song in just a few seconds. This means that somewhere there is a paid worker sitting at a computer using software to edit a digital copy of the original song into a 20-second ringtone. What can you say about this worker?

A) She is affluent.
B) She must live in a country that industrialized a long time ago.
C) She must be very well educated.
D) She is probably a member of a union.
E) She is a knowledge worker.

Question 8

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
E) the increasing integration of economies around the world and the rise of transnational corporations

Question 9

What new technology was integral to the Industrial Revolution?

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

Question 10

Someone who works giving acupuncture to dogs in order to relieve their stress is:

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

Question 11

Where did the Industrial Revolution begin?

A) the United States
B) Germany
C) England
D) France
E) China

Question 12

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
E) abundant opportunities for meaningful work

Question 13

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

A) It has increased pressures to urbanize.
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.
E) It has increased the shallow integration of the global economy.

Question 14

What technological development is most associated with the Information Revolution?

A) the jet airplane
B) the microchip
C) spreadsheets and e-mail
D) container ships
E) geosynchronous satellites

Question 15

The economic system in place in industrialized nations during the first half of the twentieth century is often called "Fordism" by sociologists. It is a system characterized by the increasingly efficient mass production of goods. Why do you think this system is called "Fordism"?

A) Many of the changes that led to this economic system happened during the administration of President Gerald Ford.
B) This economic system was like a bridge, or "ford," from craft production to the information economy.
C) It is named after the famous filmmaker John Ford, whose movies depicted the transformation to an industrial economy.
D) It is an acronym for Fully Operational Research Design, the method by which the economy modernized.
E) It is named after Henry Ford, who is credited with inventing the assembly line.

Question 16

Someone who works primarily with information and develops or uses knowledge in the workplace is called:

A) a knowledge worker.
B) a service worker.
C) an industrial worker.
D) a social worker.
E) a capitalist.

Question 17

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

A) raw materials
B) artisan goods and crafts
C) stocks and bonds
D) their own labor
E) many different kinds of commodities

Question 18

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) urbanization
D) the Great Depression
E) the Agricultural Revolution

Question 19

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

Question 20

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) only symbolic.
C) the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
D) encouraging cooperation over competition.
E) rituals and beliefs that divide the world into the sacred and the profane.

Question 21

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

A) In a socialist economy, workers are more at risk of extreme poverty.
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.
E) In a socialist economy, workers experience equality across race, gender, and sexuality.

Question 22

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

A) capitalism
B) communism
C) Marxism
D) conflict theory
E) postindustrialism

Question 23

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) living in a socialist system.
D) working in the service industry.
E) alienated from human nature.

Question 24

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) transnational corporations.
D) outsourcing.
E) socialism.

Question 25

What does Karl Marx claim is true about class conflict?

A) All human history is the history of class struggles.
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.
E) Class conflict was a feature of all premodern societies but has largely subsided.

Question 26

A professor of sociology at the University of Missouri invented a piece of software to grade students' papers that saves him 200 hours of grading every year. Why is using a computer program to grade a particularly capitalist technique?

A) It focuses on the analysis of knowledge.
B) It encourages efficiency through technological innovation.
C) It treats everyone equally.
D) It increases the fairness of the grading system.
E) It allows greater state control of how we teach students and the kind of workers that schools produce.

Question 27

In 2003 Evan Williams, the owner of the Internet firm Blogger, sold his company to Google; in the process, he became a Google employee. Why might Karl Marx suspect that this move would leave Williams feeling more alienated than before?

A) At Google he couldn't enjoy the solitude that he could when he worked with just a few other people.
B) He no longer had control over what he produced.
C) Google is notorious for using technology to monitor and control its workers.
D) He had to relocate to Palo Alto, where Google is headquartered.
E) He made less money.

Question 28

In 2005 teaching assistants at the University of Oregon went on strike. What feature 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 can cripple a key segment of the economy.
D) They have more "intellectual tools" and therefore can better strategize about how to make a strike succeed.
E) Their jobs can't be moved overseas.

Question 29

One way you can tell that medical doctors are part of the capitalist economy is that they have to:

A) develop and maintain close relationships with their patients.
B) work together to make hospitals function as effective workers' democracies.
C) spend a great deal of time in school.
D) deal with the unpleasant side effects of poor lifestyle choices.
E) constantly retrain and learn new skills.

Question 30

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 degree. What is this a sign of?

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

Question 31

Why does Karl Marx argue that work is no longer a satisfying and enjoyable activity?

A) Work has become exponentially more difficult.
B) Work is conducted only in the presence of other people.
C) Work does not produce useful goods and commodities.
D) Much work is involved in international trade.
E) Work is not the satisfaction of a need, but only the means to satisfying needs.

Question 32

What does Karl Marx believe is the natural human attitude toward work and productive activity?

A) It's human nature to only work hard in an emergency.
B) It's human nature to seek out work.
C) It's human nature to do as little work as possible.
D) It's human nature to only work when it directly benefits oneself.
E) It's human nature to work when it helps to develop a family, but not under any other circumstances.

Question 33

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) There is no difference between service work and manufacturing work.
E) Service work is much better paid than manufacturing work.

Question 34

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

A) pure capitalism.
B) pure socialism.
C) a mixture of capitalism and communism.
D) an information economy.
E) pure communism.

Question 35

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

A) The mass media make them feel bad about themselves.
B) Shallow consumerism doesn't give them something to believe in and work for.
C) Increasingly, they are surrounded by images and representations that don't really seem to relate to reality.
D) They are often poor and deprived of their basic needs.
E) They are paid for their labor but do not own the things they produce.

Question 36

Karl Marx believed that we feel "freely active" only in our "animal functions of eating, drinking, and procreating" and feel like animals when we engage in activities that should be truly human. According to Marx's line of thought here, what are activities that should be truly human?

A) work, vital activity, and productive life
B) relationships and intimate connections with family and friends
C) socializing with those who make up our primary group
D) games, contests, and recreational activities
E) the care and parenting of children

Question 37

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
E) hard work and ingenuity on the part of those who retail goods

Question 38

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) a communist society.
E) mostly capitalist.

Question 39

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.
E) overpaid.

Question 40

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

A) In a traditional economy, most work happened in the home.
B) Electronics made possible the modern office with its photocopiers and memos.
C) Work is only possible when there is a wide variety of consumer goods on the market.
D) It was the first time class struggle existed in society.
E) It made the worker more autonomous.

Question 41

The ability to direct one's individual destiny is:

A) resistance.
B) bureaucracy.
C) unionization.
D) integration.
E) autonomy.

Question 42

According to Barbara Ehrenreich, what do workers with minimum-wage service jobs need to do 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) nothing; there's no way for them to move up in the world
E) develop a personal relationship with someone in a higher socioeconomic category

Question 43

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 place has been greatly diminished.
C) Employee compensation has greatly increased.
D) Productivity has declined.
E) Employees are less likely to have flexible schedules.

Question 44

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.
E) socialism.

Question 45

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) There is less direct and immediate supervision of telecommuters' work.
D) People who work from home tend to work longer hours.
E) Telecommuters must provide a concrete measure of their accomplishments, not just show up.

Question 46

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
E) racism

Question 47

What are 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.
E) It increases interaction.

Question 48

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 more destructive.
E) They are illegal.

Question 49

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.
E) Cities might grow because agricultural efficiency will improve.

Question 50

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) bargaining tool.
C) sign of nonalienation in labor.
D) postmodern gesture.
E) act of individual resistance.

Question 51

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) socialism.
E) collective bargaining.

Question 52

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.
E) Human workers make fewer mistakes on assembly lines.

Question 53

Workers at a large retail outlet are required to wear green aprons with name tags on them, which often leads customers to address them by their first names. Sometimes employees alter their name tags in humorous ways (changing "Asagi" to "Soggy"). What is this an example of?

A) professional socialization
B) a resistance strategy
C) knowledge work
D) globalization
E) shallow integration

Question 54

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.
E) She would approve because she believes that there is a serious shortage of labor in this service sector.

Question 55

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
E) child abuse

Question 56

Which of these workers would be most typical of the economy in America today?

A) a 55-year-old man who works on the assembly line at Boeing making aircraft parts
B) an 18-year-old college dropout who hacks into credit card companies' computer systems and uses cybertheft to pay the bills
C) a 25-year-old woman who paints dollhouse furniture and sells it on eBay
D) a 22-year-old man who has a union job doing construction in New York City
E) a 30-year-old woman who works as a customer service representative for a cell phone company

Question 57

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) socialism
E) the death of distance

Question 58

In September of 2001, doctors conducted the first-ever telesurgery, operating on a patient in France from an office in downtown Manhattan via robotic technology. What feature of contemporary society is this an illustration of?

A) the greatly diminished importance of place
B) the way capitalism forces individuals into competition with one another
C) the extent to which economic exploitation is still present in a modern industrial economy
D) the extent to which service workers are also subject to the scrutiny and critique of a manager or supervisor
E) the many sources of inequality in a postmodern economy

Question 59

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 decreases sales.
D) It makes customers feel important.
E) It is damaging to workers and suppresses their real selves.

Question 60

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 decline of the labor aristocracy
D) the growth of information technology
E) the rise of capitalism

Question 61

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.
E) Membership has increased in the manufacturing sector but declined everywhere else.

Question 62

During the 1912 textile mill strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the striking workers' slogan was "bread and roses." What did the slogan mean?

A) The workers wanted longer lunch breaks.
B) It referred to specific ethnic traditions within the workforce.
C) It emphasized that the workers needed more than wages barely sufficient to keep them alive.
D) The workers wanted to be provided with food at work.
E) The workers wanted a closer connection with nature.

Question 63

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

A) globalization.
B) runaway shops.
C) knowledge work.
D) deep integration.
E) shallow integration.

Question 64

In 2000 Ken Loach made a film called Bread and Roses. The film is set in Los Angeles and is related in many ways to the discussion in Chapter 11. Given what you know from Chapter 11, what is the film about?

A) It's about the outsourcing of Hollywood jobs, especially those that involve digital editing and postproduction.
B) It's about globalization and follows the adventures of a young Japanese couple as they explore Los Angeles.
C) It's a critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence, following a conspiracy in the 1970s to control the water supply in Southern California.
D) Based on the best-selling novel by James Ellroy, it's a crime drama that explores both the dark side of the Los Angeles police force and Southern California's criminal underbelly in the early 1950s.
E) It's about the struggle of janitors, most of them immigrants, to unionize.

Question 65

When Japanese cars that are made entirely in Japan are imported to the United States to be sold to Americans and American jeans made in the United States are exported to Japan to be sold to Japanese, it is an example of:

A) volunteerism.
B) shallow integration.
C) deep integration.
D) globalization.
E) runaway shops.

Question 66

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) open shops.
E) gray markets.

Question 67

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 facilitated the growth of unions among knowledge workers.
D) It instituted limits on secondary strikes and boycotts.
E) It made unions illegal.

Question 68

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

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

Question 69

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.
E) union shops.

Question 70

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
E) the Third Sector

Question 71

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri wrote Empire to express their concern that the power of nation-states is being replaced by an international "empire" of exploitative capitalism. Given what you know about changes in the economy, what do you think they are concerned about?

A) collective resistance
B) unions
C) globalization
D) cooperative enterprises
E) the industrial revolution

Question 72

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

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

Question 73

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 increased levels of agricultural production that have come about as a result of new technologies and better animal breeding techniques
E) the increasing role played by nonprofits and Third Sector organizations

Question 74

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.
E) Factory workers will be paid more.

Question 75

You want to discover who made the comforter on your bed. You notice that one tag says, "Made in the USA from imported materials" and another tag says, "Shell made in China." Eventually, you discover that the cotton for your comforter was grown in Egypt, the thread made in Thailand, the shell woven in China, and the down harvested in South America, before the comforter was assembled in the United States. What is this an example of?

A) unionization
B) a contingent workforce
C) knowledge workers
D) the death of distance
E) deep integration

Question 76

When manufacturing firms move to other countries to take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental laws, it is called:

A) crowdsourcing.
B) opening runaway shops.
C) globalization.
D) knowledge work.
E) industrialization.

Question 77

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

A) a union.
B) a soviet.
C) the Third Sector.
D) nonprofits.
E) a sweatshop.

Question 78

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) socialism.
D) postindustrial work.
E) transnational corporations.

Question 79

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.
E) information work.

Question 80

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
E) workers at a florist who help customers pick out flowers and package them