The social class that wrote the constitution was the wealthy elites made of rich white men of the early United States. They owned land, slaves, merchants. An example of this would be them protecting the wealthy from competing claims. Farmers were large landowners. They wrote the document to protect property rights and non-wealthy classes from participation and farmers made sure their wealth was not questioned by claims of other classes

The class excluded from participation was everyone…women, racial minorities and the poor. The constitution was not written for them or by them and it feared democracy.  In the reading 6.2 women and slaves were subjected to the discrimination of the common law and lead to not being represented in the convention which leads to no voting.

The social class of early United States society still can be viewed the same. The rich are continuing to win just in different ways. Yes, the early U.S. was more open to being unequal and always rigged for the rich. Though it is less rigid. There are still limited opportunities depending on race and gender and class.

The people who wrote the constitution were so afraid of democracy because they saw it as a threat against their control. They had farmers and laborers which were always at the bottom. The slaves were denied rights and property. They were scared of women since most white men couldn’t vote because they were too poor and they believed women would organize and gain political power. They didn’t trust democracy

The concept that we have already discussed does “faction” remind me of social class since they are different groups divided by interest or goals.

James Madison explains that people have different abilities. His argument is that people with more opportunities can lead to people to own property and wealth. While others who don’t have those opportunities can’t. 

In my opinion, I believe it depends. I can come to terms with James Madison’s explanation and how skills and opportunities can factor in someone’s life. But not abilities alone explain how someone can be rich and other people be poor.

The core mission of the US government is protection of secure property rights. It doesn’t surprise me since I believe they are protecting rights because they were wealthy who didn’t want to have things risked and only wanted to secure their own wealth. The constitution was made to “prevent” chaos. They saw social order by safeguarding their property.  

No, I am not surprised that James Madison opposed democracy because he feared people using their political powers against a minority group. This was a direct treat to poetry rights for farmers and he wanted to protect the privileged classes.  

The way I understand the means of production is by viewing it as resources. It helps produce something for it serves as a service. Labor is work, physical work. An example of means of production can be a farm land, a farmer owns the land, the tools, buckets, gardening supplies,and water, etc.  to benefit his labor. An example of labor would be picking weeds out from a garden. It’s physical work that someone has to do, it’s measured by time.

Value is how much labor it takes to make something under normal circumstances.  Labor gives value. Something becomes valuable when it has a function or its a need. 

Labor and value are related since a service is determined by labor to produce it. Meaning the more labor, the more value. The relation between them is that they both need each other. Without labor, things would not be as valuable. And this is the labor theory of value 

The way I am able to understand the difference between labor and labor power is that labor is physical work that someone puts into something to make something valuable. Labor-power is the ability to do labor. It falls back to needing food or clothes, without necessities, humans won’t be able to have enough labor power to actually do labor.

Value on top of the value it took to get there. Profits. It’s important since value is produced by workers and it doesn’t get returned to them (money) It is important for the study of social classes since it uncovered hor capitalism works and how exploited workers actually are. Since it only benefits wealth-owners. An example of surplus value can be someone making a desk, the worker makes it with a value of $2,500 but only can receive $200.

M-Money

C-Commodity

M-Money 

The way capitalists maintain and increase their wealth is by M-C-M. They start with money to be able to purchase commodities and labor which means this allows for production to move forward. Workers are then paid less than the value that they create, this is called surplus value and then their work gets sold on the market to make more money and capitalists end up with the money. Over time the capitalist class maintains and increases their wealth over time following this cycle.

The statistic on wealth inequality in the US that made a big impression on me is the top 1% and the bottom 90%. This shows that the top 1% owns between 40 and 50 percent of the nation’s total wealth. It crashes the “middle class” title since that is the american dream to live comfortably with your family and statistically, it shows the middle class families are actually struggling. Families don’t have wealth to fall back on and this can push families into debt or poverty

Money has power. A group of people that controls the economy and politics obtains the money and leaves the rest of the people with nothing. The implications of Huge Wealth Inequality can be that money influences politics. It can also make people feel excluded when it comes to certain benefits. It also creates the idea that families can just go into debt. We see these situations in our daily lives, for example, wealthy families can afford private schools/universities and this allows children to have an advantage. Most working class or middle class families usually just attend public schools in poor areas. One more example of this is healthcare. Wealthy families are able to afford quality healthcare since they are able to afford health insurance or different specialized treatments. Working or middle class families usually have to delay care and suffer since they can’t usually afford insurance. Money buys power and opportunities. 

The distinction that the reading makes between owners and employees is that owners make their income that comes from the labor of other people. Employees receive wages that only represent a small portion of their labor. An example of this can be a popular restaurant owner, fine dining. They are able to exploit workers, like servers or janitors to work harder for less than minimum wage. Owners are able to profit from their workers since most workers actually need a job. 

The way I am able to understand the quote by Adam Smith is that working is determined by how much time and effect an employee does when working. Doing work is the. It is saying that labor gives things value. Money is just a way to show value. 

My thoughts on the main argument of reading 4.4 that supports the idea that class is NOT an identity because materials come into play. When people work for a company, they dont own it..they just work there and then they become a member of the working class and they have to start using their salary to live day-to-day. But! We are also able to look at different forms of oppression like gender or race, and even sexuality and how they also play a role in employment opportunities.

The way I am able to understand the argument in reading 4.4 is that it’s a base. Without workers, capitalists aren’t able to grow their company nor grow their money. Workers rely on capitalists for money. And workers use this money for their daily lives like rent, groceries or other necessities. They depend on each other since capitalists pull money from their workers labor and in return the workers depend on capitalist companies for survival. An example of this can be a fast food chain and a worker…For the company, their profit comes from how much time a worker shows up, follows orders, and helps assist customers to keep everyone happy even though some don’t enjoy working there. Workers depend on these fast foods for jobs since there might not be another option and they need their job, they try their hardest to keep their job in risk of getting fired and not being able to have income to feed their family 

The way I understand Ideology is viewing it as a set of beliefs.  Ideology is used especially in terms of politics. These beliefs help us to understand our political views. Ideology can be used as an umbrella term for many things and there are different labels that people can use for the side that they reside with the most. An example of this would be communism, meaning everything is for everyone… a small example of this would be not being able to own private property.

The way I am able to understand ideology the best way is actually looking at it with religion in mind. There are many different religions. In these religious groups, they all have their own system of beliefs. Ideology helps people understand their world and click with the world. When people get together, they know they aren’t alone sharing the same values and beliefs and this helps expand community also.

The way I am able to understand the difference between conservative and liberal ideology in US politics is understanding it by size, that conservatives believe a large government threatens liberty and wants the government to be as small as possible. Liberals believe that there should be no government in our personal day-to-day lives and instead advocate for a more active government role to help make things equal and fair. The big differences from these two are the beliefs that they stand for. The diving line is their view of the government and how it plays a role in society. A clear example of this would be immigration status, we are able to see that most conservatives would support a stricter border system and more ways to remove immigrants from “their home (town/city/etc)”. Most liberals are able to have empathy for families and find it heartbreaking to find out that families get torn apart, women get assaulted and beaten in these camps and even children get involved. We are able to identify that conservatives view it in a power dynamic and liberals see it as a way to advocate for people in need and support them or find a way to rehome those families.

I understand Althusser’s definition of ideology by school. We are able to see schools have children for a span of 7-8 hours throughout 5 days. Within those 5 days, children follow instructions based on the adult in the room. And follows rules. When we see that most children don’t follow these rules the adult threatens to step in with a phone call home, removing you from class…etc. It teaches when doing something wrong, authority and violence will always be there.

Repressive State Apparatus is being able to control something through the threat of violence. A reason why Althusser could call it repressive is because reprieve is power. It is someone being able to control what others are doing and it is usually by force. An example would be the police. We are able to understand his words since usually police have power to be able to do as they please since most people are scared of them or know they don’t have much of a say since there is a power dynamic. 

Ideological State Apparatuses is when police, court, and prison only step in when something fails to put people in their place. It prevents change to status quo. It seems to work by ideology. Their society is based on beliefs and values. 

Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses are different from each other because Repressive State Apparatuses is force with punishment or violence and Ideological State Apparatuses is society exist naturally by status quo. The difference between them is Ideological State Apparatuses shapes beliefs for status quo and the other enforces undergoing commands.