I’m sure the statistic on wealth inequality in the US that surprised me the most, is the exact same statistic that surprised everyone else. I had no idea that the top 1% owns between 40-50% of the nations total wealth. It’s both puzzling and absurd. But, given the context of what we’re learning, and how money produces capital, it makes sense. Because, where laborers have a static amount of wealth that doesn’t increase, capitalist wealth can expound through surplus value.
As a writer, the implications of these economic inequalities is that, in order for a laborer to create an idea, they need to go through a capitalist to have the funds necessary to see it to fruition. It also means that it’s constantly becoming harder and harder to actually grow wealth. Because of the growing grasp on the nations wealth that capitalists have. I used this example in my first discussion board for this module, but you can see this in the need for a production company, when making a movie. Film staff usually take several years, just to create one singular movie. And it goes through the inception, to development, to creation, and to editing. When it gets released, the rights of that film goes to the production company, and the money it earns from country to country, goes to the people who haven’t actually lifted a single finger, working on the film.
I like your example of the film industry because it connects wealth inequality to a real creative process. It also shows how workers can create much of the final product while the ownership of that product belongs to the company that provided the capital. I think this is a good example of how the relationship between labor and capital can affect different industries, not just traditional businesses.
Hey Annette, I agree that the statistic about the top 1 percent owning 40-50 percent of the wealth is absurd. Your example about the file industry was excellent. It really highlights how the production company and capitalists profit massively off the long, hard work of the actual creators and film staff.
You say that the money a movie earns doesn’t go to the people who actually worked on the film, what about the big-time actors and directors that negotiate for EP credits and/or a percentage of the box office, merchandise, etc? When they first start out, they definitely fall into the working class, but when they work their way up, their investments would certainly place them in the owning class along with the production company.