1. Reading 4.3 explains that owners and employees differ mainly in how they earn their income. Owners, or the “owning class,” live mostly off property income such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or other investments. They do not have to rely directly on wages to survive. For example, a wealthy shareholder who collects dividends from Apple stock belongs to this group. On the other hand, employees live off wages, salaries, and fees that come from selling their labor. A teacher, a cashier at Walmart, or a nurse in a hospital would be examples of the employee class. The key distinction is whether one’s survival comes from ownership of wealth or from working for wages.

2. The quote by Adam Smith emphasizes that labor is the true source of all value in society. Everything that is produced or consumed has labor behind it. At the same time, workers rarely receive the full fruits of their labor, since a portion of what they produce is taken as profit by owners. In other words, labor creates wealth, but the people doing the work often remain dependent on employers for survival. Smith’s point highlights both the centrality of labor in the economy and the unfairness of how it is rewarded.

3. Reading 4.4 argues that class should not be understood as an identity, like race, gender, or religion. Instead, class is a structural relationship in society. Being “working class” is not about personal culture, clothing, or lifestyle, it’s about the economic position of having to sell your labor to survive. Similarly, being part of the owning class is about controlling wealth and resources. Class, therefore, is less about who we are as individuals and more about how we are positioned in relation to power, dependency, and exploitation in the economy.

4. The argument that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency” means that workers and owners depend on each other, but not equally. Workers depend on owners for wages so they can pay rent, buy food, and survive. Owners depend on workers to create goods and services that generate profit. However, the power balance favors owners because they can more easily replace workers than workers can replace the source of their income. A good example is Amazon warehouse labor: workers rely on Amazon for their paycheck, while Amazon relies on them to move products. Yet Amazon has far greater power in the relationship, which shows how dependency in class structures is unequal.