1. To my understanding, in order to make any product two things are necessary, means of production and labor.Means of production are all the items that aid in producing a product, it can be used in two ways: for capitalist production and standard production.Standard production is the regular process, where means of production are just the tools used to create a product regardless of who owns them.Whereas, capitalist production is when the means of production are privately owned and the resulting product is then sold to in a market for profit.An example of it would be if my product is a house my means of labor would be cement, bricks, lightbulbs etc.Labor is defined as the amount of work it takes to complete a task/product, this is the only thing that is able to increase the value of what you have, being that if a higher rate of labor is required then the value goes up as well. An example would being, the usual amount of labor for a regular carpenter to make a regular door is 3 hours, whereas if it’s a door with more intricate designs this will then increase the value of the product as the labor has increased.
  2. Value is ultimately the amount of effort it takes to make a product, as a products value is dependent on the labor required under normal circumstance to make that specific product.An item that is valuable is a product that has a large amount of labor required, making that product “unique” when compared to a product that was completed in a short amount of time.
  3. Labor and Value are directly related to one another, i’d say they have a cause and effect relationship, as when one increases (labor) then the other variable increases(value).Specifically, if a wedding cake was being made and it required higher labor than usual then this would then increase the amount of value(cost) it has.
  4. Labor power is what is sold to employers within the capitalist system, it is an individuals ability/capacity to do work.Whereas, labor is the actual work that gets completed.
  5. Surplus value is the extra work completed that isn’t covered in wages to the worker,its important as this is a key example that supports marx’s theory of capitalism being formed to exploit the worker and benefit the rich.An example would be if my task at my job is completed within the first 2 hours of my 8 hour shift, the rest of those 6 hours would be considered surplus value as my task is already completed but i’m still completing other work that benefits my employer.

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