University of Dayton

PHL 313

CHAPTER 15

Multiple-Choice Questions

1)Veblen insists that consumers of products make an “invidious comparison” between:

1. 1. Owners and group members
   2. Rich and poor
   3. Leaders and servants
   4. Cheapskates and spendthrifts

2. For Veblen, the possession of goods becomes a conventional basis of:
   1. Harm
   2. Pleasure
   3. Happiness
   4. Reputability

3.                                                         Bell points out that, especially according to a Puritan way of looking at work, in a world of scarcity, there is a “Malthusian” injunction for:
   1. Impudence
   2. Prudence
   3. Waste
   4. Inefficiency

4. Bell insists that the “tradition of the new” encourages:
   1. Impudence
   2. Prudence
   3. Waste
   4. Efficiency

5.                                                         Kuttner argues that the impulse toward collective betterment has overwhelmed Americans’    outlook:
   1. Socialist
   2. Marxist
   3. Totalitarian
   4. Libertarian

7.                                                         Heilbroner argues that the source of profits has been constricted by the use of:
   1. Machinery

1. 2. Animals
   3. Capital
   4. “Dead labor”

9.                                                         Some might object to Mill’s argument, he says, that the education of children is one of those expenses that                                                           ought to defray.
   1. the state
   2. parents
   3. welfare
   4. None of the above

10. Marx argues that the “use-value” of a thing comes from its:
    1. Methods
    2. Utility
    3. Means
    4. End

11.                                                         Marx argues that a use-value has value only because this has been embodied in it:
    1. Human labor
    2. Time
    3. Money
    4. Utility

12. The citizen’s guide to supercapitalism would begin by instructing                                       to beware of any advocate who blames corporations for the negative social consequences of supercapitalism.
    1. the public
    2. the government
    3. CEOs
    4. the media

13. What are the two types of “wealth-getting” for Aristotle?
    1. Household management and robbery
    2. Usury and retail trade
    3. Robbery and usury
    4. Household management and retail trade

14. Smith uses the workman example to show what?

1. 1. How many people are needed to make a coat
   2. How the division of labor works to create efficiency
   3. That he is not just writing for aristocrats
   4. To gain confidence from the workingmen of his time

15. What does Keynes believe about the economic status of future generations?
    1. They will have a slightly lower standard of living.
    2. They will have about the same standard of living we have.
    3. They will not have to work hard for a living; the economic problem will be solved.
    4. There will be an economic disaster returning us to the Dark Ages.

True/False Questions

1. Aristotle thinks that retail trade is an honorable form of wealth-getting.

2. Karl Marx explains the concept of use-value.

3. Mill argues that the government (and not the individual instructor) should determine the curriculum in education.

4. From the viewpoint of Buddhist economics, production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life.

5. Veblen argues that there is only one incentive for the acquisition and accumulation of wealth.

6. Sen argues that poorer nations must face the hard realities of economics and “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” as wealthier nations had to do to put themselves in their present position of affluence.

7. Robert Reich believes that corporate executives are engaged in a diabolical plot.

8. The Puritan ethic, according to Bell, might be summed up easily in the phrase “delayed gratification.”

9. Kuttner is searching for the proper understanding of a “mixed” economy.

10. For Adam Smith, the highest value is always economic growth.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

1. Sen argues that, in part because it is so broad,                                  is not suited to solve many problems; the best it can do is anticipate them.