Read these BEFORE you proceed further:
• Your responses to any three of the four questions are due before the end of the university-scheduled final exam time for this class.
• This is an open-book (well, open-readings), open-notes test.
o Make sure you provide details on the references that are outside of the class materials.
• Thou SHALL NOT consult with anybody
o Violating this will result in severe penalties for the offenders.
• A well-crafted answer (per question) may be articulated in about 500 words
• In developing your answers:
o You have to integrate your understanding of ideas across the contents of more than one week.
o Bring in appropriate keywords/concepts, and evidence from the readings
- When discussing keywords/concepts, do not merely copy/paste them from websites; explain your understanding of those ideas in your own words.
o Provide logical arguments that carefully examine the pros and the cons
- DO NOT merely provide your reflective opinions
• Avoid rhetorical statements and metaphors
• Answers should be word-processed and double-spaced.
• Pay attention to the mechanics of writing
o Grammar, spell-check, etc.
1. The market system operates via prices. Discuss how through prices a finite resource like crude oil will never really be exhausted, which will then make that resource seem infinite.
2. Discuss whether location is more or less important in the secondary sector activities in comparison with the tertiary sector activities.
3. In I, Pencil, Leonard Read notes that one cannot find any trace of a mastermind in the creation of a pencil. "Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work" he writes. Is that metaphor also why we then end up with uncoordinated economic activities negatively impacting the natural environment, and is that a good argument for why we should not pursue economic activities?
4. Absurdistan's population pyramids for the years 2000 and 2050 are provided below. (Age is represented on the Y-axis, and the population count in hundred-thousands is shown along the X-axis.) Based ONLY on the data provided in the graphics, what can you infer about the trends in fertility rates in those time periods? At what stage of the demographic transition will Absurdistan be in 2050?
