Deck 11: The Economy and Work

Question 1

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 different racial and ethnic groups to work together.
D) Workers never had the satisfaction of seeing the finished product.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

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

Answer 2

C

Question 3

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

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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

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

Question 5

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 6

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 7

"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, which is the method by which the economy modernized.
D) It is named after Henry Ford, who is credited with inventing the assembly line.

Question 8

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 9

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 10

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

Question 11

In 2008 and 2009,under the Obama administration,the United States government initiated a large-scale economic bailout of the banking and auto industries.The government invested enormous amounts of money and,as a result,became the majority shareholder in some corporations.According to the text,this means that the United States

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

Question 12

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 13

In which century did the Industrial Revolution begin?

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

Question 14

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 15

How are workers' situations different in socialist versus capitalist economies?

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

Question 16

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) partially socialist.
D) totally capitalist.

Question 17

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

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

Question 18

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 19

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

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 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 22

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) They are surrounded by images and representations that do not 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 23

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 24

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 25

These days,many customer service representatives with whom we talk 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 26

Cuba's communist government has recently introduced reforms that make it easier to attract tourists.Consequently,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 27

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 these answers, as there is no way for minimum-wage workers to move up in the world

Question 28

"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 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 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 31

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 32

Workers in large department stores usually are paid on commission,which means they are in direct competition with their fellow employees.According to Karl Marx,the workers may experience

A) the Industrial Revolution.
B) premodernism.
C) alienation.
D) knowledge workers.

Question 33

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 34

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 35

How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work?

A) Employees are less easily distracted by outside influences since they can remain working on the Internet.
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 36

What do you think Barbara Ehrenreich would say about efforts to reform welfare,which attempted 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 for survival.
B) She would approve because she thinks that welfare is demeaning.
C) She would disapprove because she thinks that new immigrants better fill minimum-wage jobs.
D) She would approve because she believes that welfare breeds dependency and low self-esteem.

Question 37

What does Karl Marx claim is true about class conflict?

A) There have been class conflicts throughout all of human history.
B) Class conflict is a product of the Industrial Revolution.
C) Class conflict was first experienced during the Middle Ages, and the modern society inherited it.
D) Class conflict is uniquely a feature of the Information Revolution.

Question 38

What is it an example of when office workers hang pictures in their cubicles or waste time daydreaming while on the clock?

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

Question 39

Tactics that are used by workers to 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 40

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

A) It used machines to produce more goods, more efficiently.
B) Work only became possible when a variety of consumer goods were made available in the market.
C) It was the first time class struggle existed in society.
D) It made the worker more autonomous.

Question 41

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 42

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 43

What is a sweatshop?

A) a workplace with a workforce composed primarily of white people 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 44

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 45

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 46

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 47

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

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

Question 48

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 49

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 50

What has an office worker engaged in,although it may not seem like much,when he or she brings in a plant to brighten up his or her cubicle?

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

Question 51

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 52

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 53

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 54

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 55

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 56

What is it an example of 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?

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

Question 57

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 58

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 59

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 60

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 61

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

Question 62

Which of the following groups is engaged in contingent work?

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

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

In June 2017,President Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

Question 65

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
D) the farms where the cotton is grown

Question 66

The Indian Government has drafted,but not passed as of 2017,a law that would allow Americans to use Indian surrogates to adopt children at a considerable savings compared to what it would cost in the United States.

Question 67

The Information Revolution has changed many things about the economy,but most other aspects of life have remained unchanged.Describe two things that remain the same.

Question 68

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

Question 69

What are three examples of "contingent work"?

Question 70

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

Question 71

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 72

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

Question 73

Provide three concrete examples of globalization that support the view that the modern world is one giant global economy.

Question 74

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

Question 75

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 76

Describe two advantages and two disadvantages of telecommuting.

Question 77

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

Question 78

"Rogue" agencies posting information on Twitter to make it available to the public is an example of individual resistance to bureaucratic organizations.

Question 79

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 80

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