As You Come into the Campus Cafeteria, You Join Your

question 59

Essay

As you come into the campus cafeteria, you join your friends who are discussing how people make occupational choices. One friend believes that we choose our careers based on the importance we place on various work rewards, a second says we are pushed into our jobs through the social influence of parents and peers, and a third says there are much more potent forces in the broader social environment that affect where we end up occupationally. They ask you what you think. How do you respond?

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Definitions:

Public Bureaucracies

Complex structures in government that manage policies and administer public services through a fixed set of rules and procedures.

Competitive Market Pressures

Forces within a free market that influence companies to improve products, lower prices, and become more efficient to stay competitive.

Public Goods

Goods that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning they are available to all members of society and one person's use does not diminish another's.

Private Goods

Products and services that are excludable and rivalrous, meaning only paying customers can consume them, and one person's consumption prevents another's.