1. Means of production and labor are two key concepts that are spoken of in the video. Means of production is the way in which you are able to create or send your goods to a place where it can be given its value. An example of this would be a factory that is the means of production. A factory allows you to create immense value by producing your product. Labor has to do with the physicals work put in by a person in order to create the value in this product. For example, a laborer in a factory is someone who is able to operate the machines and use these machines to create the value that is the product being created.
  2. Value is the price given to a product based on the labor put into making it, as well as the perception behind the product being created. Something is value if it is highly demanded by the public or if it requires a high amount of labor in order to produce. The highest value items combine both of these concepts and are both high labor items that are highly demanded by the public.
  3. Labor and value are connected because labor is putting in their work to give value to an item that their making. The value of a item should be represent the labor that was put in by the laborer. In the capitalist model, laborers often are not compensated fully for the value that they put into the item they created, resulting in a surplus value for the capitalist
  4. The difference between labor and labor power is considered ad the physical act of working, which is labor; versus the ability to actual perform labor, which is labor power. This being that you would call the action of performing a job a labor, while you would a person capable of doing the labor would be considered to possess labor power.
  5. Surplus value is the value above the value of the labor that the capitalist makes otherwise known as profit. Its important to know about surplus value because it demonstrates that the capitalist will always underpay a worker for their labor in order to see a surplus value. An example of surplus value would be someone who works in fast food services. If they work at a hourly rate of $15 and after 8 hours make $120, any service that they do to provide value above $120 would be considered surplus value. This value is generated by the worker however goes directly to the capitalist owner instead of the worker.

One thought on “Hector Lopez Discussion Board 5.1”

  1. Hi Hector. I just got done reading your response for the discussion board 5.1 questions and I have to say that you ended up hitting the nail right on the head in regards to these questions. In particular, I thought it was interesting to see you mention in question 3 that laborers are not often compensated fully for the value that they put into the item that they create with their labor, which ends up resulting in surplus value, something that you end up explaining later in question 5. I think that’s a really well-done way to set up what you were going to be discussing in a later question.

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