1.video 5.1 shows that production and labor are the main source of wealth in this situation.production is the key tool for example factories,machines,and materials needed to produce something. On the other hand, labor is the only thing that can increase the value of a product because that is the work that is being put into creating the product. For example, in a makeup factory the labor is the cosmetic scientist and the means of production are the sources you need to create the makeup.

2.What makes something valuable is the amount of labor that is being put into a product .Marx emphasizes that a product value is measured by how much labor it takes to produce a product under normal circumstances .The more labor it takes the higher the value.

3.According to marx theory the value is distributed according to the labor (time and effort).Labor and value are related because you get value from labor .The more effort it takes to produce a product the higher the value.

4.The difference between labor and labor is the key concept in Marx theory .Labor power is simply the capacity a person has to work as it’s mentioned on video 5.1 marx explains that labor power is the hours a worker puts for themselve . Meanwhile labor refers to the physical work that a worker has done .

5.surplus value is privately owned by the capitalist(your boss) . surplus value is the main evidence that capitalism is exploitative towards the workers . workers don’t get the full value for their labor because workers basically get 50%.Surplus value is what your boss get for the product he sold from your labor.

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.

In the video, when they mention the means of production, they’re talking about all the tools and resources necessary to create products. For example, in a clothing factory, this includes things like sewing machines, fabric, and the workspace where everything comes together. Labor, on the other hand, is the actual work that people put in to make those products. A perfect example would be the seamstresses who sew the clothes. They’re the ones taking the materials and turning them into items we can wear and that businesses can sell.

2. Another important concept in understanding social class is value. Based on the ideas presented in Video 5.1, what is value?  What give “value” to value, what makes something valuable?

Value, as discussed in the video, is about how much effort and work goes into making something. Something is considered valuable when it takes a lot of time, skill, and resources to produce. For example, a custom-made guitar is generally seen as more valuable than ones that are mass produced because it involves more detailed work and craftsmanship. The labor that goes into it makes it special and unique.

3.How are labor and value related? What’s the relationship/connection between the two?

Labor and value are closely connected. Usually, the more effort that goes into making something, the higher its value tends to be. This isn’t just about the price; it also includes the resources and skills used to create the product. Additionally, market demand plays a big role in the relationship as well. When a product is in high demand, it can raise the value of the labor that went into making it.

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.

Labor is the actual work we do to create things, while labor power refers to our ability or capacity to do that work. Basically, when we talk about labor power, we’re looking at what we, as workers, can offer to employers in exchange for a paycheck.

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 basically the difference between what workers are paid and the value of what they produce. So, for example, if a factory worker earns $15 an hour but makes products worth $30 an hour, that extra $15 is the surplus value, which goes to the business owner. Understanding surplus value is really important when we talk about social classes because it highlights how workers help generate profits but often don’t see the full benefits of their labor.

Means of production refer to the resources needed for production like factories, machinery, and materials, while labor is the human effort involved. Value in a product is determined by labor input, scarcity, demand, and socially necessary labor time. Labor directly affects value – more labor-intensive products have higher value. Labor is the work performed, while labor power is the potential to work and is sold to employers for wages. Surplus value is the profit derived by capitalists from workers’ labor – it shows the exploitation in the capitalist system. Understanding surplus value is crucial for analyzing class exploitation and economic inequality, as it highlights how workers create more value than they receive in wages, benefiting business owners. For example, if a worker generates $30 of value but is paid $15, the surplus value is $15, allowing for profit and wealth accumulation for business owners.

Value is the amount of labor that is being put into a product like how many hours you work making that product. Something that costs more has more value because the more labor work you put into that product. Value-social construct that varies across circumstances & cultures. 

Labor and value are related because the more labor you put in a product the higher the value of the product is. (Time and effort) 

Labor power according to Marx is when you go to work you rent out your labor power for the day. Meaning like you now are working for yourself and for someone else. So say you are working on a product and it takes you 4 hours to do it and you work 9-5 the rest of the hours you  have left you are now working for someone and what you make how gose to them. Marx said “ You are alway being paid less than what your labor is actually worth.” Labor power owned by the capacity. Labor is the physical act of work. 

Surplus value is privately owned by the capitalist(someone you work for). Workers don’t get the full value for their labor work. Surplus value is what the person you work for gets for the product he or she sold from your labor the hours you just stood at work doing nothing because you are done with your work. All that labor hours gose to your boss. 

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.

Means of production = resources, tools, and the facilities needed to create goods or services.

Labor= the human effort applied to these means of production to create a final product.

For example, in a chocolate factory, the means of production are the raw materials like cocoa beans and different machines for roasting, grinding, tempering, and packaging. Labor refers to the chocolate factory workers running these machines and performing tasks like mixing ingredients, production supervision, and packaging the final product.

2. Another important concept in understanding social class is value. Based on the ideas presented in Video 5.1  what is value?  What give “value” to value, what makes something valuable? 

In the video, value is explained by the Labor Theory of Value; A product’s value is measured by how much labor it takes to produce under normal circumstances, the more labor time – more value.

For example, a handcrafted chocolate bonbon, that resource their chocolate from a family-owned organic cacao farm in Costa Rica, where everything from planting and picking the cacao pods to the chocolate production is handmade, has more value than a machine-made, mass sourced and mass-produced chocolate bonbons because more human labor went into producing the chocolate.

Labor is the foundation of value, and it includes more than just the materials or tools, but also the human work(=labor) applied to them, and that’s what makes them valuable.

3. How are labor and value related? What’s the relationship/connection between the two?

Labor and value have a very close and reliant relationship. According to the Labor Theory of Value, labor is the source of all value. The time spent by workers on a product defines its value. The more labor (in time and effort) required to make something, the more valuable it is. Going back to the chocolate bonbon example, if it takes 4 hours to make it, the value of that chocolate bonbon is going to be based on that labor time.

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 I understand the difference between Labor and Labor Power is that Labor is the actual work done by a person to produce goods or services and Labor Power refers to a worker’s ability or capacity to work.

When a person goes to work, she or he are selling their labor power to their employer for some time (i.e. “work hours”). The employer then uses the worker’s labor within that time frame to create products, goods or services.

The main difference is that Labor is the action, while Labor Power is the ability to work or the potential to work, which can be rented out to employers in exchange for salaries. For example, based on their experience a chocolatier chef can rent their labor power to a high-end chocolate boutique owner. Their actual work in the shop is their labor.

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?

According to the Marxist theory, surplus value refers to the additional value produced by workers’ labor that exceeds the wages they receive for their work, beyond what is necessary to sustain themselves. If it takes 4 hours of labor to earn enough to cover a worker’s wages and living expenses, but the worker continues to work for 8 hours, the additional 4 hours of labor produces surplus value, which is basically considered as a profit for the employees.

This surplus value is important because it’s where profits come from in a capitalist system. The business owner (capitalist) keeps this surplus value as profit. That’s how capitalism works: the capitalist hires other people to increase the value of what they have, and then they keep that extra value (i.e. Surplus Value) for themselves. That is why Marx argued that capitalism exploits workers. Surplus value shows the inequity in how profits are made and shared in a capitalist society.

In the chocolate shop mentioned above, surplus value is created when the chocolatier chef is paid $25 an hour but produces chocolate bonbons that make $100 in sales per hour. The $75 difference is the surplus value, an additional value created by the chocolatier’s labor that makes the owner’s profit.

The video clearly discusses two main ideas, the means of production and labor. The only means of production encompasses the physical and non-human resources needed to create goods and services, such as factories, machinery, tools, raw materials, and necessary infrastructure. In the textile industry, sewing machines, factory buildings, and fabric are examples of the means of production. which is quite great. labor refers to the human effort, both physical and mental, put into the production process. It involves people’s work to turn raw materials into finished products or services. For example, in the textile industry, factory workers operating sewing machines and designers creating clothing patterns are providing the labor. so Labor is the work done, while labor power is the ability or potential to do work. Workers sell their labor power to employers in exchange for wages, with the key difference being the capacity to work (labor power) versus the actual work done (labor). Surplus value is the extra value created by workers beyond their wages. It shows how workers’ labor generates profit for capitalists in a capitalist economy. Understanding surplus value helps us see the economic exploitation in these systems.

1. Understanding the Means of Production and Labor

When I think of the means of production, I consider them as tools, resources, and commodities for creating something, whether it is tangible or intangible. In other words, the instruments in the handicraft sense that would be used, for instance, in making a video, the camera, the microphone, and the editing software used during the video preparation, are the means of production. On the other hand, labor or work is an effort that I would invest to make the output of these tools. Hence, I apply effort when shooting, enhancing, or uploading the video. Without my work, the tools or means of production are just lying idle-they require me or any other worker to apply effort and add value through labor.

2. What is Value?

 As defined by Marxist theory, value is created through labor. According to (Philosophy Tube, 2016), value is considered when labor is added to an object, and the product’s value is enhanced. A piece of wood is simply a wooden log until a laborer processes it into a chair; it becomes precious. According to this theory, the value of an article is measured by the sum of the labor time spent on creating it under average circumstances, or the more time-consuming and skilled the labor used to produce the particular product, the more valuable the product. This is the basis of Marx’s Labor Theory of Value.

3. How are Labor and Value Related?

 Labor positively correlates with values, most of which are earned through labor. As the video depicts, when labor is not being input into raw material, it will be as it is. However, where physical effort is directed towards a change in substance (for example, transforming a log into a chair), it obtains some value due to the time and energy applied. Hence, from this perspective,value may be described as the effort used in producing a given good.

4. Difference Between Labor and Labor Power

From my point of view, the relation between labor and labor power is that labor implies the work done or an action made to create an object or offer a service. Labor power is defined as my ability or capability to work; it is what I bring forth to an employer whenever we bargain on my employment. The labor power I actively offer for sale in employment relationships differs from the labor I do upon being hired. The difference here is that labor power is the capacity to work, whereas labor is the action of working.

5. Surplus Value

Surplus value refers to the extra value or profits that I create through labor but which undergoes appropriation by the capitalist (Jalee, n.d.). For instance, if I was paid for 8 hours of work, what I made in value is more than what I paid for in the 8 hours, then the extra value belongs to the capitalist. This is the core of Marx’s view of capitalist society because it shows that workers are cheated – as they add value more than they are paid, the balance constitutes the capitalist.

discussion board 5.1

1. The mean of production is things we need to use in order to create something that will help our economy grow. For example we need farms in order to make produce but we need to have seeds in order to grow produce. Labor is the work done by people to create something, for example physically baking for a bakery shop for 8 hours.
2. I believe values is when you put all your time and effort into the work you, or when a product is always sold out so the value in it rises.
3. Labor and value is related because the amount of time and work you put into something creates value, and value comes from the goods and services from labor.
4. The differences is that labor is when work is being physically performed by someone while labor power is what a worker has to offer in order to receive their wage.
5. surplus value is when a worker over works themselves and go above and beyond for a small amount of wage. I think surplus values is important because it points out the different social classes.

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.