Many historians and political scientists argue that parts of the structure in the United States government were designed in ways to protect the interests of the wealthy property owners and business at the time of the 1787 constitution. The framers were influenced by fear of “mob rule” and wanted a system that balances democracy, protection of property and economic stability. 

    One example is the Electoral College. Instead of allowing citizens to directly elect the president, the constitution created a system where electors choose the president. This gave political elites more control over presidential elections and exercised independent judgment. Critics argue that the Electoral College can weaken influence to vote because a candidate can win regardless of popular vote or not. Smaller states can gain more influence and votes may carry less weight. Another example is Federalism. Federalism divides power between the national government and the states. This divides power between the national government and states. Also the “Establishment Clause” is part of the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution and says “Congress in simple terms means the government cannot create an official religion or favor one religion over another or not fairly support religion or non-religion. This clause was designed to also protect religious freedom by keeping government and religion completely separate. Courts interpreted the Establishment Clause in many cases involving school prayers. Religious displays on public property and government funding which connects to religious institutions. 

  An important way the Supreme Court interpreted the Establishment Clause was through something called the “Lemon Test” which came from the Supreme Court case called Lemon v. Kurtzman. The courts created a three-part test which decides whether a government action violates the Establishment Clause. Firstly the law or action must have a secular,nonreligious, purpose. Also the primary effect must either promote or inhibit religion. Thirdly it must not create excessive government involvement with religion. If the government actions fail in any of these parts, it can be declared unconstitutional. Although the Lemon Test has been criticized and used less often in recent years it remains important in constitutional law and religious freedom. 

   Burning the U.S. flag is generally by the First Amendment because the Supreme Court ruled that counts as symbolic speech. This came up in case Texas v. Johnson. In that case, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American Flag during a political protest at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Texas arrested him during a law prohibiting flag desecration. However the Supreme Court ruled in a 5–4 decision that the government could not punish someone simply because society finds the act offensive. When someone says “I’m taking the Fifth” they are referring to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being forced to testify against someone in criminal cases. By “taking the Fifth” a person refuses to answer questions that could provide evidence leading to their own prosecution. This applies in court and other legal settings, such as congressional hearings or police questioning. This idea protects and ensures fairness and prevents the government from forcing people to incriminate themselves by confessing.

The court system is better suited to protect the induvial instead of elected branches of government. The court runs on laws and constitutional rights, judges make their decisions based off of these things. While on the other hand, elected branches from congress to the mayor of NYC act somewhat like a popularity contest. Whatever side supports them more with reach and funds is the side that gets their concerns addressed first with elected officials. An example of this would be the recent NYC mayoral election. Andrew Cuomo was a mayoral candidate that was funded by a super PAC that he would ultimately get in office to cater to. Judges don’t cater to people in cases for the money.

I would say the Supreme Court is anti-democratic in structure, but not necessarily anti-democratic in purpose. It is anti-democratic in the sense that it is intentionally shielded from direct elections, yet that shield is meant to protect democratic principles like equal rights, fair trials, and constitutional limits on government power. In other words, the Court is designed to stand against majority rule when majority rule threatens constitutional freedom.

The war on terror was a new war because usually when you think about war we have a specific enemy. This was mainly about surveillance without borders, so they never really gave a specific country, it was loosely explained. This is something argued by P. Williams. So instead of combat it was more so surveillance or roving wiretaps on the American people which made people feel like the 4th amendment, which is the opposition of unlawful search and seizes. The Patriot Act allowed officers to come into people’s homes without notifying them. This, in my opinion, was the start of the American government expanding its power within the country and lessening the protection that comes from the Bill of Rights.

In Reading 6.1 and 6.2 the argument is the U.S. The Constitution was written by members of the wealthy class which can be referred to as elites. These include large merchants,landowners or slave owners and creditors which are people who have economic resources and strong interest in properly protecting and maintain stability. Framers were well-educated and secured financially that the only concern was creating a system that safeguard wealth and position. In contrast the groups can be excluded from participating in constitutional processes which were the working class and lower class. For example like small farmers, wage laborers, enslaved people or women people who are without property. An example the readings mention how most ordinary people with no direct role in rafting or drafting or rafting. It was similar yet different because in early US society was based solely on property ownership and legal status like typically white men with property had political rights. Compared to now there’s legal equality most adults are formally have the right to vote and participate in politics.

The fear of democracy can be taken as a class difference. The elite were worried too much democracy can allow lower class like debtors and small farmers to pass laws that can cause harm to the wealthy like canceling death or property redistribution. As the result they redesigned a system that checks and balances, indirect elections and limits on popular power to protect the elites interest from what was seen as democracy.

In Reading 4.3 the distinguishes between owners and employees based on their relationship to the resources and work. Owners control productive resources like businesses, land or even a capital and make profit from them so they do not need to sell their labor for wages. Employees do not use resources so they must sell their labor in exchange for wages. For example someone who runs and owns a small bakery earns profit from the business compared to a server working at a restaurant who is paid hourly including tips as well.

Adam Smith is pointing out generally that labor is the true source of value in this economy. What people produce is what creates wealth. In my understanding he is suggesting that workers create value through labor and they don’t receive the full value of what they produce.

The argument that class is not an identity means that class is not only about means that class is just about how they view themselves like race, culture or gender but it’s also about structural economic positions. My take is that class in the economic system like owner vs worker does not make your identity. This argument is convincing because it highlights how classes objectively run whether we recognize it or not. Identity still matters socially because people’s perceptions on social classes can influence behavior and politics.

Class structures being built on dependency means that different classes rely on each other in direct but unequal ways especially in economic production. This means that employees depend on employers for wages to survive while employers depend on employees to produce goods and generate profit by services. An example I can think of is when a warehouse worker depends on their employees for income while the company depends on the worker to keep the operations running. Neither can function without the other but the power in relationship isn’t entirely equal.

In a federal system, the power is shared among the citizens and the national as well as local governments. In a confederation, the citizens are mainly concerned with the local governments as the central government is weak. In a unitary system, the citizens are mainly concerned with the central government. In other words, the power of the citizens depends on the distribution of power. The division of power means dividing the power of the government between different levels, such as the national and local levels, so that no level has all the power. This allows each level to make decisions in its area while sharing some powers. This ensures that there is no abuse of power and that the people can participate in decision-making at different levels of government. But there is still a possibility of abuse of power if the levels or the leaders overreach or disregard the limits of power. Lastly, the federal government helps state and local governments by providing advice, money, and rules, but its ability to do so also depends on its speed of reaction. In the case of COVID-19 in New York, the slow federal government reaction meant that the state had to deal with overwhelmed hospitals, landfills, and lack of tests on its own. The federal government rules also guided the reopening of states and the distribution of vaccines, but its slow reaction meant that states became more confused and experienced more stress, which shows that the federal government can only provide rules and money, but its slow reaction can cause states to take drastic measures on their own.

1.Meaning of Labor and Production

The means of production are the tool or resources used to produce goods or services. It’s the items you need in order to make something, for example a pizzeria needing a pizza oven to bake pizza. Labor is the work humans do to produce these goods and services, for example the baker needing the dough to make the pizza.

2.Whats value ?

Based on the video, value comes from the labor time human put in to producing these goods or services, instead of being based on opinion its based of how time is put into the work.

• 3.Comparison between labor and value

Labor creates the value, without the hard work from the workers , materials sourced or produced dont get used. The more labor time required, the more value it has.

4.Labor vs. labor power

Labor is the work actually performed by the workers, vs. labor power being the workers capacity to work.

5.Surplus value ?

Surplus value is basically the extra work the worker puts in beyond there wages. Usually half of the time whatever extra money the workers make, the capitalist keeps.

1. Do you notice any similarities in the way social class is discussed in readings 4.1 and 4.2? Do you notice any differences in the way these two readings DIFFERENTIATE between social classes?

Unable to complete, no access to reading from 4.2

1. Pick the station closest to where you live. Using the concepts from Reading 4.1, what social class tends to live in your neighborhood? Are you surprised (or not) by the answer? Do you feel it is an accurate representation of the people living in your neighborhood?

I use to live at the last stop of the F and the Q in Coney Island. Growing up it was very different than what it is now. Growing up I could say it was lower or working class. At the time it wasn’t an up and coming areas but it would get business during the summer months because of the amusement park. Over the years there’s been increased attempts to rebrand the area and bring new people. So the area I would say isn’t as lower class as it use to be.

1. Based on Reading 4.2, do you notice a general pattern about social classes in NYC?

unable to complete no access to reading from 4.2