chapter 7

Question 1

Capital:

Answer 1

the resources we use to get things we want and need.

Question 2

Economic capital:

Answer 2

financial resources that are or can be converted into money, including cash, investments, and valuable goods and property.

Question 3

Economic elite:

Answer 3

the minority of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth.

Question 4

Social mobility:

Answer 4

opportunity to move up or down in the economic hierarchy.

Question 5

Wage:

Answer 5

cash payments given to workers in exchange for their labor.

Question 6

Capitalism:

Answer 6

an economic system based on private ownership of the resources used to create wealth and the right of individuals to personally profit.

Question 7

Proletariat:

Answer 7

people employed by others who worked for a wage

Question 8

Bourgeoisie:

Answer 8

the people who employed the workers.

Question 9

Means of production:

Answer 9

resources that could be used to create wealth.
For example: land factories and money to invest

Question 10

Labor:

Answer 10

the work they could do with their bodies and minds

Question 11

Alienation:

Answer 11

describes this feeling of dissatisfaction and disconnection from the fruits of one’s labor.

Question 12

Crisis of Capitalism:

Answer 12

a coming catastrophic implosion form which capitalism would never recover

Question 13

Class consciousness:

Answer 13

an understanding that they are members of a group with shared economic interest.

Question 14

Socialism:

Answer 14

an economic system based on shared ownership of the resources used to create wealth that is then distributed by the governments for the enrichment of all

Question 15

Free market capitalism:

Answer 15

a capitalist system with little or no government regulation.

Question 16

Labor unions:

Answer 16

associations that organize workers so they can negotiate with their employers as a group instead of as individuals.

Question 17

Social safety net:

Answer 17

a patchwork of programs intended to ensure that the most economically vulnerable do not go without basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter.

Question 18

Welfare capitalism:

Answer 18

a capitalist economic system with some socialist policy aimed at distributing the profits of capitalism more evenly across the population.

Question 19

Contradictory class locations:

Answer 19

positions in the economy that are in some ways like the proletariat and in other ways like the bourgeoisie

Question 20

Service and information economy:

Answer 20

one centered on jobs in which workers provide services (for example, at restaurants, salons, and in retail stores) or work with information (in engineering, technology, and marketing, for instance).

Question 21

Precariat:

Answer 21

a word referring to a new class of workers who live economically precarious lives

Question 22

Protestant work ethic:

Answer 22

this is the idea that one’s character can and should be measured by one’s dedication to paid work.

Question 23

Glass floor:

Answer 23

an invisible barrier that restricts downward mobility.

Question 24

Wealth gaps:

Answer 24

differences in the amount of money and economic assets owned by people from different social identity groups.

Question 25

Wage gaps:

Answer 25

differences between the hourly earnings of different social identity groups

Question 26

Colorism:

Answer 26

prejudice against and discrimination toward people with dark skin compared to those with light skin, regardless of race.