1. As we learned thus far, the capitalist class consists of people who own wealth, as well as the means of production in American society. An important question in understanding how these class works are to ask: how does a capitalist remain wealthy? The answer to this question depends largely on understanding the diagram M-C-M’. So, let’s practice by explaining what happens in this diagram in our own words (but basing our ideas on Reading 5.1). Respond to the following question: Explain M-C-M’ to show how capitalists maintain and increase their wealth. (hint: your answer should weave a summary that includes what you reviewed in the self-assessment exercise question 1-7)

M is for money, C is for commodity, second M is for surplus value. The capitalists maintain and increase their wealth by inheriting their money from family, then hire people to work, extort their labor power to create more products in exchange for money, in order to get more surplus value, like a cycle, so Americans who are rich will keep rich and gain more wealth.