- What is the distinction that Reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees? Give an example of each.
- How do you understand the quote by Adam Smith on pg. 28? What is it saying about labor?
- What are your thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is NOT an identity?
- How do you understand the argument Reading 4.4. makes when stating that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency”? What is this close form of dependency, and can you think of an example?
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1. In reading 4.3, owners are people who live off of the work people do for them. They live off of wealth gained from stocks or bonds and the profits they make from their employees. An employee is someone who has to work to make a living, but they only get a portion of what they are meant to get, while the rest goes to the employer/owner. An example provided in the reading was that of an author making royalties of their book while the publishing company, who has done no work, will get profits from it. In this example, the publisher is the “owner” who has benefited from the labor of the author or the “employee.”
2. Adam Smith’s quote, to my understanding, states that the labor that goes into something is worth as much as the monetary value. It means that labor is essential to the creation of something and should be equal, if not more valuable than what it is priced.
3. The article argues that class is not an identity but a structural relationship of power. Unlike other identities, such as race or gender, one’s social class isn’t defined by personal experience but rather one’s position in the economic system. Social class is not something that is fixed and anyone who is born into an upper or lower class can manage to change their status over time.
4. I understood “class structures are built around a close form of dependency” to mean that “owners” and “employees” can not work without one or the other. “Owners” need the labor provided from their employees to allow them to live in the wealth of society. “Employees” depend on the money received from the “owners” to be able to afford what they need to survive. An example of this kind of dependency can be found in agriculture. Where farmers depend on large corporations to sell their products, while at the same time, these large corporations depend on the farmer’s labor to provide the products.