{"id":13645,"date":"2026-09-21T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2026-09-21T00:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:01:02","slug":"discussion-board-5-1-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/2026\/09\/21\/discussion-board-5-1-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin LeGendre – Discussion Board 5.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
    \r\n
  1. How I understand the means of production is what it takes to produce whatever product you’re producing. It basically means the materials, technology, or tools needed to produce that product. An example would be making a song. I can use a computer and software to mix the song, a microphone to record it, and other equipment necessary to produce the finished song. These would all be part of the means of production. How I understand labor is the actual work that goes into producing something. For example, potholes don’t fix themselves. Workers have to remove the damaged pavement, fill the pothole with asphalt, compact it, and smooth out the road. The tools and materials they use are the means of production, while the work they do to repair the road is their labor.<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  2. Based on the ideas presented in the video, value is basically how much labor it takes to produce a commodity. What gives “value” to value is the actual labor behind it, including the time, work, and skill necessary to produce it. So, a commodity isn’t necessarily valuable just because of the price that’s randomly placed on it, but because of the actual human labor that went into producing it.<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  3. Labor and value are related because the labor and amount of work that goes into producing a commodity determines its value. Value is based on the actual human labor involved in producing it, so labor and value basically go hand in hand. You can place a random price on a product, but that price is not necessarily worth the same thing as it’s value. The value is connected to the labor it takes to actually produce that product.<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  4. The difference between labor and labor power is that labor is the actual doing or producing of the work that you’re working on. Labor power is the ability you have to work, which you sell in exchange for wages. So, labor is the actual work that you get done and labor power is your ability to show up and get that work done.<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  5. Surplus value is when the labor you perform creates more value than what you were being paid for your labor power. For example, someone working in retail might make $15 an hour and work a six-hour shift, earning $90 for the day. During those six hours, their work may help the company generate much more value than the $90 they were paid. The difference between the value created through their labor and what they receive for their labor power contributes to the surplus value that goes to the owner. This connects to social class because it shows how workers create value through their labor, while owners profit from, or “exploit,” the additional value workers produce.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-5-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13653,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions\/13653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}