1. As we learned thus far, the capitalist class consists of people who own wealth, as well as the means of production in American society. An important question in understanding how this class works is to ask: how does a capitalist remain wealthy? The answer to this question depends largely on understanding the diagram M-C-M’. So, let’s practice by explaining what happens in this diagram in our own words (but basing our ideas on Reading 5.1). Respond to the following question: Explain M-C-M’ to show how capitalists maintain and increase their wealth. (hint: your answer should weave a summary that includes what you reviewed in the self-assessment exercise question 1-7). M-C-M’ stands for Money-Commodity-Money (The third money, which is denoted by M’, specifically refers to the money at the end of this transaction). What this means is that capitalists end up using the money that they have accumulated in order to buy commodities that they will then resell at a higher price in order to gain a profit. This explains how capitalists end up making and maintaining their wealth, since they end up using their money in order buy both the labor power of workers and the means of production to enable their labor power to function (which in turn transforms their money into productive capital since they ended up starting a business for-profit) and through this they end up making new commodities which they can sell back at a higher value than the materials that they used to make that commodity. On top of this, since they ended up only buying the labor power of their workers, anything that is earned through selling the commodities all goes to the capitalist. Further more, capitalists typically end up earning a surplus value from the labor power that they have to maintain, since there’s more money earned from amount of commodities that are being created from the labor of their workers than there is money being lost from having to maintain the worker’s labor power (through paying their wages). 

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. 

4.2 Question 1: The distinction that reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees is that owners are the people who have most of their income come from the people who work for them either through a company that the owners own or by creating wealth that allows their investments to give the owners a great return while employees are people who work for owners and receive their income by working for others (while also not receiving nearly the amount of money that owners do). An example of an owner is Elon Musk, someone who owns the Tesla Company and has many different people working for him to manufacture things such as electric vehicles, which makes him a lot of money. An example of an employee is a high school Global History teacher. They are employed by the school they are employed by to teach their Global History course to their students throughout each year and are paid by the school for their labor, but don’t make as much as the owners of the school itself.  

4.2 Question 2: The way that I understand the quote by Adam Smith on page 28 is that the only real way to determine the value of a sold item is by looking at how much work went into creating it in the first place. Everything that needed to be done to get each of its components, forming the item, moving it to areas where it could be sold, advertising it in different areas and everything else done it get the item sold is what truly determines the value of item as opposed to its price, which is just numbers that were set by someone. What this says about labor is that the amount of labor that goes into making something that might have a low price is a lot more extensive than you might think and that it shouldn’t be taken for granted. 

4.2 Question 3: The argument that is being stated within reading 4.4 is that socialists believe that class is not an identity that is separated into different ladders, but instead a form of structure within society that makes it so that all of society has to depend on capitalists due to them holding a form of power over society’s productive assets. In my opinion, I do think that I agree with the argument that was made by the socialists because they are trying to show that no matter how much you make via working, it doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have control over the productive assets like capitalists do and that you are still dependent on them as an employee. 

4.2 Question 4: The way that understand the argument that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency is that both capitalists and workers depend on each other in order for fill their needs and interests. This close form of dependency in particular would be the productivity for the workers end for capitalists and the jobs/money that capitalists provide for workers. An example of this is would be a Mcdonalds franchisee and their employees. The Mcdonalds franchisee needs workers in order to produce the food is going to be sold to its customers that generates money for them, while the employees needs to maintain their productivity so that they are able to keep their jobs and continue earning the paychecks that they need for their necessities in life.  

1. A Repressive State Apparatus is when you are controlled through the fear of enforcement, which includes things such as the police, courts and prison. Althusser calls it repressive because the enforcement restrains the amount of freedom and choices that people can actually make within their lives. You don’t really have a choice that you can make when the threat of enforcement exists should you fail to comply with authority. An example of this would be someone seeing a sign on a bus that says “Assaulting MTA New York City Transit personnel is a felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison”. This person would then fear even the idea of attacking a MTA staff since they wouldn’t want to go to prison for 7 years.
2. The Ideological State Apparatuses are the natural thoughts and ideas that you are exposed to on a daily basis that you want to emulate in order to live a life that is deemed “normal”, which maintains the status quo. The way that it works is that multiple options are presented within many different aspects of life (politics, advertising, entertainment, etc) in order to give people the feeling that their choices matter and will greatly affect their position within their life, however, it turns out that these choices are simply an illusion that doesn’t change much within a person’s life within the grand scheme of things and ultimately keeps them within the status quo that has been established by the authority.
3. The difference between Ideological and Repressive State Apparatuses is that Ideological State Apparatuses are the ideas and thoughts within society that maintain status quo through people wanting to follow them naturally (since most people just want to live out their lives and feel “normal”) while the Repressive State Apparatuses are the fields of enforcement that come out when people aren’t following the status quo (while also being around to show to everyone what happens to those who do rebel against the authority).
4. The example that I have posted is a No Trespassing sign that mentions that those who do will be subjected to arrest. I feel that this is an example of a Repressive Ideological Apparatus, since it shows the threat of enforcement via the police should you not comply with the authority of that property.

1. In my view, Ideology is the beliefs that one has about themselves and the society that surrounds them. It is the thoughts and ideas that people have regarding everything that they can think of and can extend to many different topics. Whether it be work ethic, behaviors, characteristics, politics, and what have you, Ideology is something that can extend to practically any topic and allows people to define others through their morals, who they associate with, what they cherish and how they believe they should go about life. An example of an Ideology is a person who believes in the idea that “Might Makes Right.” This person has the idea that those who are strong are the only ones who deserve to be in power and only associate with people that they deem strong, while those who are weak should either perish or submit to the strong and the person goes out of their way to never associate with people that they consider weak. The way that I understand Ideology is that it essentially gives an insight as to what a person’s character may be. It tells you about who they believe in, what they think is good, what they think is bad, what aspects of politics do they think is most important, etc. Now not everyone with the same Ideologies is going to be 1 for 1 the same in every single way, but it does give an idea of what a person is like and what they may value and dislike when it comes to certain topics.
2. The way that I understand the difference between Liberal and Conservative Ideology in U.S politics is that Liberal Ideology wants a bigger government so that they can help solve bigger problems while Conservative Ideology wants no government since they feel that they are a threat to individual liberty. Some of the big differences between the two is that Liberal Ideology supports government intervention of the economy (especially when that intervention benefits historically marginalized groups like minorities, women and poor), they don’t believe that big businesses have the average American’s best interest at heart and prefer to see them regulated and they favor a progressive tax system with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations since they know that aiding the poor and expanding civil liberties costs money. An example of liberal Ideology is the left party, since they embody all of the ideas of Liberal Ideology. On the other side, Conservative Ideology believes that the free market will provide the greatest economic opportunity to the greatest number of people, smaller areas where government spending occurs should be left to private sectors so that less government spending happens (meaning less taxes, which is what they want) and that liberty is the most important thing to protect, which the government does not do. An example of Conservative Ideology is the right party, since they embody all of the ideas of Conservative Ideology.
3. The way that I understand Louis Althusser’s definition of Ideology is that it is a form of status quo that is meant to ensure that all people within a society are compliant with laws and regulations set by those in authority. Those that don’t fall in line with the systems that have been set by the authority will be disciplined via losing their freedoms and ostracized by the society around them. An example of this is that a child who goes to school is taught to listen to those above him, not be disruptive, complete tasks on time and to not rebel. If the child does do anyone of these things, then they’ll most likely be subjugated to disciplinary action by the school (such as detention) and parents (stern talking to, limiting freedoms and potentially even beating them) as well as being ostracized by students (who don’t want to associate with them as to not get in trouble themselves).