Ch. 7 Political Economy

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT true regarding commodities?

Answer 1

A commodity doesn’t have value

Question 2

Purchasing products that are related to nature does what NEGATIVE thing to nature?

Answer 2

Commodifies nature

Question 3

The _______ perspective is mostly concerned with identifying how power relationships and economic systems produce environmental and social conditions.

Answer 3

Political economy

Question 4

Overaccumulation leads to what two things?

Answer 4

Overproduction and underconsumption

Question 5

_______ describes how capitalism undermines itself by undermining the environmental conditions necessary for its own perpetuation.

Answer 5

The second contradiction of capitalism

Question 6

Which of the following statements (in the memo written by Lawrence Summers) was NOT used to justify the export of polluting industries to poorer countries?

Answer 6

Poor countries have more land to redistribute the pollution

Question 7

Marx’s concepts of all of the following things, EXCEPT what, explain how the economy produces environmental problems.

Answer 7

Nature

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a problem with the political economy perspective?

Answer 8

None of the other choices: These are all problems with the political economy perspective.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT a method for capitalists to maintain accumulation of wealth?

Answer 9

Invoke pay increases for laborers

Question 10

Most environmental activists are men.

Answer 10

False

Question 11

Environmental justice is primarily concerned with the uneven distribution of environmental “bads.”

Answer 11

True

Question 12

The Enclosure Laws were an example of _______.

Answer 12

Primitive accumulation

Question 13

Moving a factory from Mexico to Vietnam is an example of the spatial fix.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

Hazardous materials are placed in minority and low-income neighborhoods because these groups often have less power to protest.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

The enclosure and privatization of previously communal resources is known as:

Answer 15

Primitive accumulation

Question 16

Marx would agree with which of the following statements about modern capitalism and environmental problems?

Answer 16

Environmental problems are already built into the economy that causes them

Question 17

Which of the following would NOT be a response to underconsumption?

Answer 17

Federal regulations to encourage saving

Question 18

According to Marx, problems such as overaccumulation, overproduction, and underconsumption are anomalies in capitalism and suggest that the system is not functioning properly.

Answer 18

False

Question 19

According to Marx, when does a “contradiction” occur?

Answer 19

When capital becomes over-concentrated

Question 20

In order to create _______ in a capitalist economy, workers and the environment must be undervalued.

Answer 20

Surplus value

Question 21

Many historians and economists view the Enclosure Laws in England in the 1780s and 1820s as a significant step toward modern capitalism.

Answer 21

True

Question 22

When people speak of the”Top 1%”, they are referring to a term in economics known as:

Answer 22

Overaccumulation

Question 23

Development is always uneven.

Answer 23

True

Question 24

According to social reproduction, unhealthy workers are more productive workers.

Answer 24

True

Question 25

Which current policy promotes the global trade of pollution?

Answer 25

Cap and trade

Question 26

When Marx writes about “accumulation”, what is he referring to?

Answer 26

Accumulation of capital

Question 27

Raw materials, used to produce commodities, are called what?

Answer 27

Conditions of production

Question 28

_______ are the raw materials needed to produce things, such as wood, iron, and oil.

Answer 28

The conditions of production

Question 29

Why do we export millions of tons of hazardous waste to poorer countries each year?

Answer 29

Environmental regulations are more lax in poorer countries, disposal costs are less in poorer countries, and environmental regulations are often not enforced in poorer countries

Question 30

Prior to capitalism, goods were sold at their exchange rate.

Answer 30

True