The statistic on wealth inequality that was very glaring to me was that the top 1% owns 40-50% of the nation’s total wealth stocks, and more then the bottom 90%. The fact that its considered “the bottom 90% is absurd because it includes both the 50th percentile as well as the upper percentiles (90th percentile), It goes to show how unmeasurable the wealth disparity is between the 1% and the rest. Their money is significantly large than that of those even considered 10% below them in terms of income households. Stocks is a significant factor of making non labor income, so it comes to no surprise to me that the lower class lacks significant amount of stocks but to be greater then 90% is way too high.
Living in a society with such a huge wealth inequality leads to a massive differences in political views and creates a divided nation where people are fighting each other. The reason for this is because, this wealth inequality cause massive percentages of households to be living under the poverty line and demanding for programs that will aid them. Households in the middle percentages in terms of income will also face challenges as the idea of the American dream, and being able to live their dream life seems more far out of reach as the amount of money needed to be apart of that life increases. As for the top percent of earners, they will do what they can to go against these policies for programs for the poverty struck households because they don’t see any of the programs going to them. Instead, they will see massive losses in their income through taxes raises without having that money comeback to them. These issues are already playing out currently with our politics where the rich are finding ways to avoid paying as much taxes as they can and are in many cases paying less taxes than lower income earners. Middle class earners additionally, are finding it harder and harder to reach their house-owning goals, as housing is becoming more and more expensive and seeming more like a luxury than a necessity in life.
The distinction that reading 4.3 makes between owners and workers is way in which they make their “wealth”. Workers, make their wealth of of wages and salary as they give their labor to owners. Owners alternatively make their wealth by the surplus value and profit that they receive by using and selling the labor put in by their worker. An example of both of these roles is a car dealership, where an owner uses the labor of its workers to sell highly priced cars. After selling the car, plenty of value is created for the company thanks to the labor put into the sale from the worker. The worker however will only see a small margin of this labor as they are compensated in their pay and whichever commission they received for their work. Meanwhile, the owner receive the surplus value of the sale which is the value of the sale not given back for the labor; where the owner had to do nothing except use a labor of their worker to gain.
Adam Smith’s quote on labor is saying how labor is the strongest and most physical form of value. Although money can be used to gain labor, it is labor itself that allows for businesses and wealth to be accumulated. In other words, money is an item that is used to get what is truly valuable, that being labor. Ultimately, nothing can happen unless there is physical labor that can be put into it.
My thoughts on the argument that class is NOT an identity I somewhat agree with the point of it being more like 2 groups being capitalist and workers and as they said ” more about interests and actions” I would agree that people are born with all the opportunities handed to them, or are born without these means and must work under someone else until they are able to reach a goal where they can become capitalist as well
The statement “Class structure are built around a close form of dependency” from my understanding, means that both workers and capitalist are able to exist and chase their values from the help of each other, however in a way they exist in a checks and balances world where neither of the two sides are always in control. This means that both sides are capable of pushing back on the other if it begins to take advantage of the other. A good example of this would be like what is mentioned in the article with a strike. In a work office, workers are there to work because they need to in order to survive. As a result, they work for these capitalist owners, however if the owners attempt to push their power on these workers too hard, workers can join together and holdout against the owner in a strike. Although the owners have the money and resources, a holdout would leave them dry of their most valuable resource which is the labor of workers. Therefore, owners need to balance their needs and values with their workers. Alternatively, workers who begin to shift the power to themselves can be challenged by owners by being replaced by others workers who would be willing to provide the same service. Both sides have a dependency on each other and aim to provide a value to both sides.
The Repressive state Apparatus are institutions put in place that acts in disciplinary ways to get people to act and believe in ways that they believe are in line where these actions are performed through forces or the threat of a force. Althusser calls it repressive because it forces upon someone and doesn’t give them the choice to go against the ideas being put against them. An example of this is the police and the law, where not following the status quo results in repression of freedom through jail time.
Ideological State Apparatus is similar to Repressive however it goes through maintain discipline in non forceful ways . An example of this is teachers in school that discipline students. Schools are one of the institutions responsible for controlling the behaviors and beliefs of a person at a young age when their most impressionable. Schools allow students to learn the status quo from their teachers and as a result, understand the world much easier under the supervision of a trusted official than if they were to just be let into the world unsupervised, with the chance of forming dangerous values.
The difference between Repressive and Ideological state apparatus is that that they are demonstrated. For instance, Repressive takes on a head on approach where people can visibly see the forces that regulate ideas. As mentioned earlier, policing and laws use their powers to force people into their values and punish them for deterring from them. Alternatively, Ideological isn’t as visible seen as is done in a sort of subconscious way. The example of teachers mentioned earlier helps prove this point. Teachers demonstrate to their students ways to act and to think. Although they don’t directly force them to, they influence their students to pick up on these values. The values are subconsciously put into the students brain and they become more in line with the status quo. This also happens in other institutions such as churches which speak on beliefs and pass them on to their followers without the our of force or conversive means.
https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY?si=jBgjiQ6BbS6JjDU- – This is America by Childish Gambino is a good example of ideology because of the idea that it presents through both its lyrics and music video. It demonstrates the division in America that causes turmoil within America where sides are fighting each other. It displays repressive apparatuses where people of different values use violence to get their way and demonstrates the errors of systems that use this violent forces. A heavy topic in the music is about the systematic racism that exist in America that is carried out by these repressive states of power. Although it is several years old, many of the issues in the music video still hold true and are deeply debated and challenged.
My understanding of ideology is that its the idea and belief that a person believes we should be governed by. Ideology mainly deals with a persons political view of government however, there believe it can also be used to describe a certain mindset when it comes to other topics. An example of a political ideology is conservatives whos have the belief that government should be as hands off as possible in order to reduce the taxes that they would pay. This idea directly conflicts with the alternative ideology held by liberals, who believe the government should aid the people. This increase in social care services results in increased taxes, however they feel it is justified, as it greatly benefits lower income families and people who would be abandoned under a unregulated free market. From my understanding of the crash course video, ideology is heavily shaped by social groups like a persons income, race, religion, and gender. This means that people who are born in high income families tend to be more conservative because they benefit greatly from the lower taxes and don’t see many of the benefits of social care. A interesting point of understanding from this is while people can create their own stance and choose their own view, most of the times, a person’s views are created as a result of the views already had by their parents.
The difference in conservatives and liberals as I mentioned earlier are the role of the government in society. Conservatives believe the the government should insert itself very little in the market and “conserve” their powers to when need be. Conservatives are similar to the ideas a laissez faire in which they believe the market can be self regulating and will allow the economy to flourish. Liberals alternatively, believe that the government should take heavy responsibility in overseeing the people and provide services to those in need. In the crash course video, they state a main reason for this is because liberals believe that a free market will not spread wealth around equally, leading to massive disparity in income among social classes. Because of this, the government is needed to regulate the people and provide support to those struggling through breaks in taxes and services provided for cheaper or no price such as Medicaid. These services come at a cost however, leading to high taxes for higher income earners however, it is believed to be justifiable, as these extra tax dollars goes towards helping even out the field.
From my understanding, Althusser’s definition of ideology is that there are sub ideology that exist in different facets of life that allow you to connect and relate to a different group of people. The example from the video that made me believe this was the entertainment apparatus. The entertainment apparatus was described as a example of ideology where instead of believing you are apart of the class that you are normally apart of, you see yourself mainly a apart of a group based on the entertainment. In the case of the video, a fan of a team rather then someone of a working class.
