1) What is the distinction that Reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees? Give an example of each.
Reading 4.3 made a clear distinction between owners and employees by defining owners as making a profit out of their employees’ labor and living off their assets while employees must produce labor and rely heavily on their wages and salaries.
Example:
Owning class – My boss: who is an equity partner and a founder of a corporate law firm – is in the Cayman Islands enjoying vacation while his associates like me are working for his clients.
Working class – Me: His employee, who is 100% dependent on the salary provided to pay my school tuition and living expenses.
2) How do you understand the quote by Adam Smith on pg. 28? What is it saying about labor?
Adam Smith, “labor … is alone the ultimate and real standard by which the value of all commodities can at all times and places be estimated and compared. It is their real price; money is their nominal price only.”
I understand Adam Smith’s quote to mean that the true worth of goods isn’t in how much money they cost, but in the amount of work it takes to produce them. To me, Smith emphasizes that labor, or the effort people put into creating something, is the real measure of its value. Money, on the other hand, is just a way to express that value at a certain time and place, but it doesn’t capture the essence of the item’s true worth, which is the labor behind it. A simpler way to put it, Labor = Value = Money.
3) What are your thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is NOT an identity?
I personally thought it was a very well written argument because I resonate with the writer’s stance on how people often view class as socioeconomic status which is again mainly derived from the combination of things like wealth, income, and education and viewed as a ‘ranking’ amongst others. When there’s a rank, there always will be some higher people and some who are lower. In my opinion, one’s identity should be valued more than just the societal rank often measured by people with power.
4) How do you understand the argument Reading 4.4. makes when stating that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency”? What is this close form of dependency, and can you think of an example?
I think what Reading 4.4 is saying is that class structures are based on a very tight kind of need for each other. This means if you’re a worker, you’re always in a spot where your boss, the capitalist, could threaten what you want or need. But it also means that workers have the power to make their bosses listen by threatening their profits. This tight connection not only puts workers at risk but also gives them the power to fight back.
Bosses hold power because they control the resources everyone needs. But there are also workers who produce actual labor that provides them profits. So for example, when unions strike, they disrupt production, highlighting how much everyone relies on these resources. This forces a negotiation, showing the power balance between workers and bosses and the broader dependency society has on their continued operation.
