1. Distinction Between Owners and Employees (Reading 4.3)

Reading 4.3 distinguishes owners as those who control businesses, capital, and profits, while employees sell their labor to make a living. Owners accumulate wealth through the work of employees, while employees rely on wages. An example of an owner would be the CEO of a major company like Amazon, while an employee could be a warehouse worker who packages orders.

2. Understanding Adam Smiths Quote on Page 28

Adam Smiths quote on labor emphasizes that workers are the foundation of economic production, yet they often dont see the full value of their work. To me, it highlights how labor is essential in creating wealth, but workers dont always benefit proportionally. It suggests a critique of how wealth is distributed in capitalist systems.

3. Main Argument of Reading 4.4 Class is Not an Identity

I understand the argument as saying that class isn’t just a personal label or identity like race or gender, but rather a structural position in society. Its based on economic relationships, not just personal experience. This means that even if people dont “feel” working class, their material conditions like relying on wages instead of investments determine their class position.

4. Understanding Class Dependency

When Reading 4.4 states that class structures are built around a close form of dependency, I take it to mean that different classes rely on each other in an unequal way. Workers depend on employers for wages, while employers depend on workers to generate profit. An example of this is how fast food workers rely on their jobs to pay rent, but the company owners rely on those same workers to keep operations running and generate revenue. This dependency is what maintains class divisions.