1. Parenti, in his book  “Democracy for the Few,” Posits that the core difference between owners and employees is who is in control of the means of production. The owners, usually capitalists, do not sell their labor to survive; instead, they own businesses, factories, and profit from hiring workers who are forced to sell their labor. The employees, these workers, do not own any means of production and instead must earn a wage by working for someone else. An example of this is the owners of the garment factories in Bangladesh and the millions of workers the factories employ.
  2. Adam Smith argues that the labor behind any commodity is the real value behind it. Machines, land, and capital are important, but they only create wealth because human labor puts them into motion. So, even though owners reap huge profits, it is the workers’ hands and sweat that make everything possible. Labor is the foundation of all wealth but in capitalism, workers rarely get compensated in proportion to the value they actually create.
  3. I agree with Heideman claim that class is not just a personal label you wear, it is a relationship between power and economics, circumstances, and resources, for example For example, someone might identify as middle-class because they dress nicely or have a college degree, but if they’re one paycheck away from eviction, their actual class position is closer to working class.
  4. Classes depend on one another, although not equally; the workers depend on the capitalists for jobs and wages, and in turn the capitalists depend on the workers to generate profit and/or product. An often exploitative relationship and still a dependency.

One thought on “discussion post 4.2 Daniyal Khundmiri”

  1. I love your take on this, and while showing the example of in-bandgelesh, the owners hire workers for the factory. Owners will make the money while the workers will make the wages. Also, Adam Smith’s point makes sense because nothing can operate without human labor. I also agree that class isn’t an identity; it’s about power and money.

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