FAMILY QUESTIONS FOR THE MIDTERM EXAM

The following are the questions I selected from the ones submitted by the two families. You will note I did some editing of both questions and answers. Some questions I rejected because the answers provided were not accurate. One of the things I added to the questions submitted was some context (for example, from what chapter in "Affluenza" the question came). REMEMBER, THESE QUESTIONS WILL BE ON THE EXAM ON THURSDAY.


MAGENTA FAMILY (Coleman, Kelsey, Stephanie, Sandra) earn 5 points (although you only submitted 5 questions, instead of 6.)

1. In Chapter 12, Industrial diarrhea, the authors cite Dr. Sandra Steingraber who, in her book "Living Downstream," makes what point about chemicals found in many products? (1)

ANSWER: "The vast majority of commercially used chemicals were brought to the market before 1979, when federal legislation mandated the review of new chemicals. Thus many carcenogenic environmental contaminants likely remain unidentified, unmonitored and, unregulated."

2. Why do marketers try to capture children especially into buying their products? (2)

ANSWER: Because if you wait to reach children with your product until they are 18, you probably won't capture them. Also, because children have a significant influence on their parents and their own money, which makes them important consumers.

3. To give some idea of the dramatic increase in household debt, the authors note in Chapter 2, A rash of bankruptcies, that in 1980 U.S. household debt stood at 65% of disposable income. Today, that same figure is what? (1)

ANSWER: 125%


BLUE FAMILY (Warren, Ross, Mary, Amber) earn 5 activity points.

1. Explain what the authors mean by "global infection," one of the subheadings in Chapter 10, Social scars. (1)

ANSWER: How social scars left by affluenza are being replicated throught the entire world as more and more cultures adopt the American lifestyle.

2. At the end of Chapter 6, Family convulsions, I called your attention to the views of conservative Edward Luttwak. How does Luttwak distinguish a real conservative from a phony one? (2)

ANSWER: A real conservative wants to conserve family, community, nature, whereas a phony conservative tends to defend the unrestricted free market as the best mechanism for rapidly increasing America's wealth, often at the expense of family, community, nature.

3. How did the introduction of television in the 1950s contribute to the epidemic of affluenza? (2)

ANSWER: Television showed everyone how the other (or upper) half lived. Although crude at first, ads on TV became more psychologically sophisticated and thus more effective in selling things to people.
____________________________