- What is the distinction that Reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees? Give an example of each.
The distinction between owners and employees in Reading 4.3 is that owners live mostly off investments while employees mostly rely on wages, salaries and fees. Additionally, being part of the “owning class” means that a large part of your income comes from the labor of other people (i.e. employees).
- How do you understand the quote by Adam Smith on pg. 28? What is it saying about labor?
To my understanding, Smith is saying that the true value of any goods or services come from the amount of labor needed to make it. This labor is what gives those things their “real” value. By saying that, Smith is basically saying that labor is the true source of value and the amount of work that goes into producing something determines its real worth.
- What are your thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is NOT an identity?
The main point Heideman makes about class is that it is not merely an identity, like race or gender, but rather based on economic power and exploitation. He argues that while liberal discourse often frames class as just another identity category (such as race, gender, sexuality, etc.), this view fails to grasp the unique nature of class as a structural relation between workers and capitalists. I tend to agree with this main point, because I think that by looking at class as an identity alone (as the liberal approach), we can easily overlook how the capitalist system deals with these inequalities. Racial, gender and sexual and religion identity does play a big role in the power distribution in our society. Narrowing it down to just class is, in my opinion, won’t solve any issues we have in our society but rather increase them.
- 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?
The phrase means that different social classes depend on each other, but not equally. This close form of dependency means that one group relies on another but in an unequal way. For example, employees depend on capitalists for jobs and income to make a living, while capitalists depend on workers to make profits for them. Yet, capitalists have more power because they control the wages and working conditions and owning the resources. By that an imbalance between these two classes is created.
