1. Two key concepts in this video are the means of production and labor. In your comment, explain how you understand the means of production and labor. Give an example of each. The way that I understand each word is that the means of production is everything that is needed in order to create a product (For example, in order to create a Mcdonalds Big Mac sandwich, you need 3 Sesame Seed buns, 2 burger patties, lettuce, Mcdonald’s special sauce and a Mcdonalds grill). Labor is the work that is put into something to transform it into a product, which in turn increases its value (For example, having 3 sesame seeds buns, 2 burger patties, lettuce, and sauce are all things separately that don’t have too much value, but putting in the labor to transform those ingredients into a Mcdonalds Big Mac gives that product a lot more value than the individual ingredients). On top of this, labor is measured in time and the more labor time it takes to make something, the more valuable it is. 

2. Another important concept in understanding social class is value. Based on the ideas presented in Video 5.1, what is value?  What gives “value” to value, what makes something valuable? Value is how much labor it takes to make something under normal circumstances. The thing that “value” to value is time. 

3. How are labor and value related? What’s the relationship/connection between the two? Labor and value are related in the fact that the labor put into something is what gives a product its value. On top of that, the more time it takes to make a product under normal conditions, more labor it takes to make (as well as the product being more expensive to make) and the more valuable the product becomes. Without labor, things become less valuable (for example, planks of wood are less valuable than a bed that someone put the labor into making with those planks of wood). 

4. How do you understand the difference between labor and labor power? Hint: this is a key difference, give it your best shot based on what the video says about it, and your own ideas. We’ll clarify and develop it in our discussions, and in my video comments. The way that I understand labor and labor power is that labor is the work itself that people put into things to transform them into products, while labor power is people’s ability to work. An example of labor would be a construction worker turning a pile of hundreds of bricks into a wall for a house. An example of labor power would be that same construction worker only being able to do that labor for his job from 11AM to 6PM so long as his construction job provides him with enough of a salary to sustain his needs. 

5. Surplus Value: what is it? Why is it important to know about, in our study of social classes? Think about an example of surplus value? Surplus Value is the value on top of the value that it took to get you there. It is essentially the profit that is made by the company from the products that are made from workers via their labor. It is important to know about surplus value in our study of social classes because of the fact that this is the main goal of people who own wealth, to gain surplus value from their workers and make profits in order to keep them wealthy. It is the main crux of the reason why workers and wealth owners don’t see eye to eye, because wealth owners desire surplus value in order to keep them wealthy, but because of this, workers end up being paid less than what their labor is actually worth. For example, say if a Burger King worker ends up making and selling 40 Triple Whoppers in the span of a single day. Let’s say that each Triple whopper, with their ingredients, takes about $5 dollars to make and is sold for $11.19. This means that the worker essentially made about $259.6 dollars worth of profit for the company for making that item 40 times within the span of one day and yet he’s only working for $15 dollars per hour, which only gets him $120 for that entire day. Since none of the money that he made from making those triple whoppers goes to him, he ended up making a surplus value for his company that is worth more than he earns in a single day.