- 1. The distinction that Reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees is “who owns the wealth of society and those who must work for a living”. Owners for example live within the owning class as they make their money based upon investments such as stocks , bonds, rents, mineral royalties and other property income. Employees live based upon wages, salaries and fees. Majority of Americans today live through payback to paycheck with how our economy has been going within the years. An example of an owner would be a CEO of a company and an example of an example would be a sales associate.
- 2. The quote Adam Smith states on page 28 is “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. It is their real price; money is their nominal price only.” I understand this quote by knowing with hard work and labor, you see success in the work you do, by being able to gain well income. Value of income depending on the field you work can always be compared with how long you’ve done the work and how much you’ll gain however, all the success comes from the work you put in. The quote is saying about labor that is not easy as not everyone can handle taking on labor however, for those who do take on, the value of what they earn from is strong.
- 3. My thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is not an identity is I believe this is false as class is made up many different backgrounds, such as cultural, political, wealth. As stated within reading 4.4, “class locations are essentially gradational, with degrees of advantage or disadvantages.”
- 4. Understanding the argument Reading 4.4 makes when stating that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency” is by each social class gives individuals a level of dependency with working as they take responsibilities. This close form of dependency is “it’s that to be a worker means, necessarily, to be dependent on a given capitalist or firm for a job.” An example of a close form of dependency would be being manager.
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Helena, good points on Q1! On Q2, be careful, Smith is saying that human labor is the most important thing that makes something made by people (such as any commodity) valuable: the value comes from the kind of human work that went into making the thing (like a computer, or a sandwich, or a car, etc.).