1. The distinction that is made in reading 4.3 between owners and employees is the capital and labor. According to the text, “the owning class live mostly off investments, which include stocks, bonds, rents, mineral royalties, and other property income” meanwhile “employees live mostly off wages, salaries, and fees.” The authority and advantage to make impacting decisions for the economy and lives of employees are usually held by Owners. It is unfortunate that employees do not hold this authority and have to depend on their jobs to earn a living, with no ability to make decisions at work. 
2. The way I decipher the quote by Adam Smith on pg. 28 is the value of labor is worth more than money. Yes, money is the end all be all. However, labor is what is stimulating the economy. Wealth is a byproduct from the labor of the people working in different industries who are contributing to productivity. 
3. My thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is not an identity, class is not about being labeled or seen as a gender or race but more about structural position because things like race and gender are important parts of who we are and can influence the way we experience life. Structural position refers to where a person fits in society based on parts of their identity and social background.
4.  Close form of dependency is when workers and owners rely on each other, but owners maintain more power. Workers depend on owners for wages, while owners depend on workers to generate profits. For example, For example, tenants depend on property owners for housing, while property owners depend on tenants for rent.

2. The station closest to where I live is 59th Street Columbus Circle. Based on Reading 4.1, I would describe my neighborhood as upper class. Primarily due to its location and the professions of the residents. However, I am not surprised by this because the area has a high cost of living, expensive housing, and many residents with higher incomes and professional careers. According to the articles, it asserts income, education, and occupation are some of the strongest factors connected to social class. I feel that the upper class is a fairly accurate representation of my neighborhood. Even with people from different economic backgrounds living and working in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Repressive state apparatus utilizes tools such as violence, threats, institutionalization, or force to show dominance in a matter or situation regarding an individual or social class. The reason for this is to maintain power over a social class, person, or situation. This directly affects the behaviors of how people behave. An example is in some states, if someone was to take another human beings life, they would be given the death penalty. This is to avoid society thinking its okay to act on such a heinous crime.

According to Althusser, its called repressive because it utilizes force, violence and institutionalization for control over people, as opposed to persuasion.

Ideological state Apparatus utilizes tools such as persuasion, behavioral habits, and social/cultural norms to gain control over people. In example, churches create behavioral habits such as to praise a higher power, abide by these commandments which in turn are very similar to laws and to be a self righteous human being. when you do well in school, you get rewarded from your teacher or maybe your parents which is a form of persuasion combined with cultural norms to condition you to be a better person for society. This tactic works because it is based on persuasion rather than force, allowing the person to make the choice for themselves and if they choose to do so, creating structure for society. When people feel like they are forced or have no choice, they choose to rebel or do the opposite of what “society wants.”

Both repressive and ideological apparatuses are different because repressive apparatus is geared towards using brute force or the law with punitive punishments to gain control over a situation as opposed to ideological apparatus which uses persuasion and forms of rewards to gain control over a situation. Both are common because both are used to create structure in society, but the implementations of them are completely different.

Below is an example of ideological apparatus.

Ideology is how someone sees themselves, others, and systems in society. Ideology shapes the thinking of how someone reacts to or supports these systems. It gives a basic outline of how society is as a whole and how we see the world around us, based off our own thinking, appeases, and cultural background.
In example, people of hispanic or black cultures are seen as poor, lazy and deserving of that from a conservative standpoint, but from a liberal standpoint, these cultures are seen as hard-workers making do with what they were given. This is a thought process of each social class.

I understand ideology to be a type of categorization to a certain class of people and how they contribute to society as well as how they interact within these systems of the law and within each group. I also understand ideology to influence background, the type of neighborhoods people live in, and the access or lack thereof for one as opposed to the other in regards to services and assistance. I also believe it is a broader spectrum from the social norm of race as anyone can have a conservative or liberal point of view, based on how they were influenced, growing up.

In US politics, conservative and liberal ideology are different in the aspect of what views they stand for. In example, a conservative would be more prone to a smaller government because they believe that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes to help the poor, where as someone with a liberal standpoint would agree with more assistance from the government to support their lifestyle. Also the viewpoints of the police and law enforcement, would show an equal difference between both parties because a liberal would be anti-police due to the majority being targeted by police because of their race or culture, as opposed to liberals who are less targeted by the police because of the environment/neighborhood they may or many not live in.

I understand Althusser’s definition of ideology because when we are in school we are institutionalized to be obedient or we will get detention or time out. As we get older the same principal applies, of conditioning us to know that bad behavior doesn’t get rewarded, but instead of detention, it’s jail or worse. His idea of ideology makes me understand everything we was taught conditioned us to be “model members of society.”