Veronica Gonzalez

POL 100 (0504) – Intro. to American Govt. – Fall 2022

Discussion Board 4.2

Q1. The distinctions that Michael Parenti makes in “Democracy for the 

Few” between owners and employees are: Owners do not physically labor for their pay but rather make their income come from ex.: rental income properties, business investments, stocks and bonds as well as other forms of income/profit generating investments. Another way that the owning class makes income is through the labor of their employees. Employees differ from the owner in that they earn their income from salary, wages and fees. Employees for example manufacture and create products or provide services that the consumer then buys. Employees physically labor for their income, and are the ones that can end up toiling endlessly in a 9 to 5 job that will in the end not pay them what their labor is actually worth. 

Q2.  My perspective with regards to Adam Smith’s quote is that labor in a way is what moves the world. No company or corporation in the world can be a producer of anything if it does not have the employees, the labor force, that will not only create the design and ideas but that will manufacture the product or the service. According to A. Smith, “labor… is alone the ultimate and real standard by which the value of all commodities can at all times and places be estimated and compared (pg. 28)”, which in essence means that the employee and the labor they put into creating and making something is what gives the end product its value and what in turn can make the laborer a valuable asset.

Q3. My thoughts on the main argument in the “Class Rules Everything Around Me” by P. Heideman that “class is NOT an identity” is that (social) class is not a belief  or a set of rules that we follow or even a part of our culture but is a category, label or title that we are put into or we put ourselves into. A person’s identity is who they are in their foundational beliefs, experiences and upbringing while (social) class is a label that can change and serves to identify a person’s income producing level more than who they are as a person or their identity. 

Q4. My understanding of the statement “class structure is built around a close form of dependency” is that all parties involved, or classes involved, depend on each other to survive. When speaking of class in this instance we are mainly referring to the capitalist and the worker class. Capitalists, in whatever their form may be, are dependent on the workers that produce what they sell in order to maintain their financial position and to maintain the position of power that their workers afford them. For the worker, they are dependent on the capitalists that employ them. Both capitalist and worker depend on each other and have power over each other yet it seems that it is society, with all of its own different social classes, that depends on the capitalist class. According to Paul Heideman, “The kind of property capitalists control — productive property —- is what everyone in a society depends on (pg. 6)”. Society is willing to in some ways compromise in order for capitalist to continue to prosper and profit because if they succeed then they are able to provide what society needs.

An example of this dependency would be Starbucks. Starbucks is a corporation that provides employment at all levels and provides the public with a product that many people consume. If Starbucks coffee supply chain is affected to the point where they are unable to make a profit, then they won’t be able to pay their employees salaries, which means that they will have to close their cafes which then leaves the public without their supply of coffee. Both the worker and the public depend on what Starbucks provides, but for different reasons. The workers need the employment and the salary to provide for their own needs, while the public depends on the product provided for their own personal satisfaction. Both want Starbucks to succeed because of what it provides for them. Starbucks also is part of this dependency chain because without the workers in their supply chain, their corporate employees and store staff, their product can’t be produced, marketed and sold to the public.