The Supreme ruled in favor of Wal-Mart in the Betty Dukes v. Wal-Mart case. The Supreme Court decided unanimously that the 1.5 million women could not be endorsed as a class in a class-action lawsuit. Class-action is a law that falls under Rule 23 of the Civil Procedure, which specifies, among other things, what kind of relief classes can seek. For a case such as that magnitude, it had to meet the commonality requirement, which means that the case had to provide or share common questions of law. Thus, failing to meet the requirement for Rule 23 commonality. The commonality concept says that “a class must share not only a common problem but also share a common solution. The court argued that not all the 1.5 million women were not denied the same promotion, increased wages, insults, or belittled by the same manager in the same store across the country. Therefore, their cases could not be legitimately prosecuted at the same time or at once.

1. Owners, capitalists, or wealthy people are those who own the means of production. They live off the profits of their investment produced by employees who sell their labor for a wage. Owners are those individuals or families that live primarily off investments such as stocks, bonds, rents, mineral royalties, and other property income. At the same time, the employees seek to be financially stable through wages. The distinction here is that owners produce zero labor but enjoy the profit while the employee produces the labor but gets a salary lower than the labor they put in.
2. According to Smith, without labor, there is no value in wages and salaries. Employees are the actual value of companies. Employees’ labor is what makes companies gain profit, and since labor is the real value of all commodities, employees’ contributions to companies are what make companies and the capitalist rich.
3. Class is definitely not an identity. Class refers to our socio-economic status in society in terms of wealth, education, and income accumulated or generated over time. I say class is not an identity because some people can force their way up the ladder into the upper-middle classes even though they were born by lower-class parents.
4. Here, both the employers and employees depend on each other to keep on existing. The capitalist needs workers to produce goods and services to increase productivity and profits. In contrast, the employees need jobs and wages to keep up with their daily expenses, bills, and families.

1. I think there is no right or wrong answer to this question. The court systems are suited to protect the individual in so many ways. The court protects individuals by hearing their cases to determine whether the individual is guilty or not guilty. It is in the courts that judges determine whether an individual can be convicted or not. The elected branches of government are in power to see to the well-being of the citizens. The court’s system, in some cases, has saved individuals from being sentenced wrongfully. Many individuals have also been convicted and sent to jail by the same court system, which seeks to provide justice for all citizens.
2. Yes, the Supreme Court is anti-democratic because it does not include the opinions of citizens. They are the only people in all three branches of government that hold their positions for life. Supreme Court Justices are appointed because the appointed justices rule favor the votes or rules in favor of the ruling party or the party’s ideologies. Presidents make these nominations based on the legacies they will leave behind as judges will continue to hold their position and continue making decisions. Class plays a significant role in appointing Supreme Court judges as higher classes seek protection over their wealth. As Federalist #10 suggests, the interest of the wealthy must be protected in a way that is contrary to the rights of ordinary citizens. Even though the president nominates the Judge, a large amount of influence comes from the wealthy class. For example, the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by former president Trump was influenced mainly by the capitalist class to which Donald Trump belongs.

1. P. William writes that the war on terror is a new type of war that targets people’s minds and emotions. It is a system designed by the justice department to play with people’s minds; in other words, when we hear war on terrorism, it triggers some fear in our minds.
2. The Patriot Act’s “Roving Wiretaps” violates the fourth amendment (bill of rights). It permits the unlawful monitoring and surveillance of a targeted individual by wiretapping the devices they use. It can sometimes get to the point where the targeted person’s property may be confiscated
3. Sneak and Peak are where the FBI gets to search people’s homes and businesses without notifying them about whatever investigation that’s going on. I believe this is a violation of the target’s fourth amendment rights. People have the right to feel secure in their homes. The Peak and Sneak does not allow authorities to give the target a notice; they show up and conduct their search, which is not the right thing to do

1. The establishment clause is a law whereby the United States federal government is prevented from creating, supporting, or sponsoring any religion. The idea behind this logic is that a diverse group of people living in the country and supporting one religion will mean that other Americans who have chosen other religions are relegated to being second-class citizens. The US cannot operate under an official religion because people of other faiths will feel discriminated against for a different religion. To avoid citizens feeling that they have been relegated to second-class citizens because they belong to a religion that’s not official, America does not have an official faith.
2. The First Amendment indeed protects the burning of the US flag. The US flag is considered one of the great symbols of the country, and citizens must show patriotism, respect, and protection of the flag at any time. But the burning of that flag burning constitutes a form of “symbolic speech” that the First Amendment protects. The first Amendment condemns anyone who tries to destroy the US flag anyway and to burn the flag is considered a crime against the nation. As mentioned in the reading, “This court decision was strongly criticized, and Congress responded by passing a federal law, the Flag Protection Act, intended to overrule it; the act, too, was struck down as unconstitutional in 1990.
3. Taking the fifth means the United States citizen invokes the Fifth Amendment when the citizen is accused of committing a crime. This means that the citizen has the right to remain silent by not testifying in the court proceedings. If the citizen knows that his testimony can be used against them, they can choose to invoke the Fifth Amendment, protecting them from testifying. Under the Fifth Amendment, individuals cannot be forced to testify as they have already self-incriminated themselves by invoking the Fifth Amendment.

1. In 1787, the upper classes of the United States convened in Philadelphia and drafted the constitution. Those who own property and controlled almost all trades in the five colonial cities. Activities such as commerce, shipping, banking, mining, and manufacturing on the eastern seaboard. These were merchants, bankers, and landowners: this group of individuals and powerful capitalists who owned many wealth (property). The poor (lower class) people played zero roles in writing the constitution because their opinions didn’t even matter. Native Americans, black people, women, people of white skin who didn’t have sufficient property, and indentured servants were excluded from participating in the decision-making process of drafting the constitution. If you fall into the lower class, you have no power and, for that matter, cannot make decisions that will affect or impact the nation.

2. The social class that existed in 1700 is still the same as today. Some of the affluent families have transferred wealth to their generations. In today’s America, it is the wealthy capitalist who determines how wealth is distributed. Working-class Americans are excluded and brushed to the side. Just as poor people in America had to labor to survive, it is even worse today. Today, wealthy families almost pay low wages to those from the working class while enjoying and ripe profits on their labor. For example, John D Rockefeller and the Rothschild family still own and control the banks and commerce.

3. They believed that through democracy, the middle class, middle-upper class, and the lower class would benefit as it would allow the propertyless to participate in decision-making. Democracy was a threat to their wealth. But these constitution writers wanted absolute power and protection so those from the lower classes couldn’t interfere in their affairs. They didn’t care about the masses; the wealthy people tried to enrich themselves and keep the working class always laboring to profit from their selfish interests.

1. One of the statistics on wealth inequality in the U.S. that made the biggest impression on me is that 90 percent of American families have little or no net assets. It is shocking to read that a country as powerful as the U.S. has 90% of its population who lives with no net assets. Take liabilities out of these families’ lives, and they have nothing. They earn what is enough to maintain or sustain their subsistence. About 40 to 50 percent of America’s wealth lies in the hands of the capitalist who continues to grow their wealth at the expense of the working class.

2. In the United States, a person’s social class plays an essential role in determining their future. Only a few have come from lower classes to join the upper middle classes. And these cases are even rare. If you come from a low-income family, your chances of making it is shallow, whereas if you come from a wealthy family, you can attend private schools and Ivy League colleges, increasing your case to a better life. There is a particular privilege awarded to the most affluent families in the U.S, which the low-income working class does not get. The implications of such colossal wealth inequalities lead to the low-income earners chasing wages all their lives while those on the peak of the wealth stratum amass more wealth. Also, sometimes the most affluent people use their wealth to suppress and become delinquents in society. Not all, but we can think of Jeffrey Epstein and Richard Huckle as examples of wealthy people who took advantage of their wealth to abuse people. On the other hand, people from low-income families either end up going to prison, school dropouts, junky, drug dealer, or a hardened criminal because they want to keep surviving. The wealthy people are sitting on the wealth and not paying them good salaries for their labor, so they end up going astray.

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 this class works is 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)

Ans: M-C-M is the process whereby there is a flow of transactions committed by using money. It starts with money and ends with money––thus, money is used to purchase goods and services or commodities that will be then sold for profits or more money. The meaning of this acronym is Money-Commodity-Money, where the last M (money) depicts how the wealthy or capitalist make profits. They sell the commodity they invested in to make more money. We must be mindful that the principal aim of the capitalist class is profiting so they do not invest in anything that won’t bring them profits. Therefore, any commodity that a capitalist cannot resell to make more money is considered not valuable to the capitalist for their primary goal is profits.

1. The means of production refers to all the tools used in the production of goods and services. These tools are primarily physical and its owned by the majority of the top one percent. Thus, for example, in a capitalist economy, the means of production are controlled by the ruling and wealthy class. On the other hand, labor is the process by which time, effort, and skill are invested in the making and delivering goods and services. For example, commuting to work in a restaurant, bar, and construction site daily puts in your labor for the owner to make a profit.

2. I will define value as the amount of labor is incurred in production under normal circumstances. Thus, goods and services gain more value when more time is spent on them and how much they are willing to pay.

3. The relationship between labor and value is that, while labor involves the efforts and time, and skill invested in creating goods and services, value includes labor. How a commodity gains its value is through labor, so it is clear that labor is a determinant of commodity value. On the other hand, we must also be mindful that value can decrease according to the labor invested in it. I will say these two are interdependent.

4.Labor is how time, effort, and skill are invested in the making and delivering of goods and services. Labor power is what increases the value of the commodity when applied. Labor power simply means the ability to labor. Thus, labor power rest in people selling or renting out their labor to capitalist bosses.

5.Surplus value is the remainder of labor or profits gained by owners after workers have labored to produce the commodity or goods and services. Here, employees have to work twice the time to produce the labor equal to their daily satisfaction. In the interest of the wealthy, workers drained themselves to produce extra labor, which generates wealth and riches owners–– thus, profits made out of the additional labor of employees make the capitalist more wealthy.