- The distinction that Michael Parenti makes in his article, “Wealth and Wants in the United States,” between the owner and the worker is based on how each of them make their income. The owner makes a living off of investments like stocks, bonds, and rents. The worker makes their incomes from wages and salaries. The owner usually does not give their labor for their income, it is produced by the value the workers produce. But the worker must give their time in order to make an income. This mostly is based on who owns the means of production, and once you do, you become and owner/capitalist.
- I understand Adam Smith’s quote, on page 28, to mean that labor is what constitutes the price of commodities. This, to me, sets up the two interests between the capitalist and the worker that we learn about in Reading 4.4. The capitalist is interested in maximizing profits, while the worker is interested in keeping their position and advancing. If capitalists are profit driven, they may undermine the workers interests, for example, by cutting wages or through layoffs in order to lower overall costs.
- At first, I found myself conflicted between these two views of class being considered an identity or not. But when hearing more about the socialist view of the why class is more than just an identity, I couldn’t help but to agree with this ideology. Class does represent more of a structure in our society rather than an identity. It is because of the capitalistic structure that society is divided into two classes that can base their interest and their actions on whether they are a worker or a capitalist.
- The close form of dependency around the class structure is the interchangeable dependency between the worker and the capitalist. The worker depends on the capitalist or firm as a means to afford living. The capitalist depends on exploiting the labor of the worker in order to maintain and advance their position in the market. An example of this would be students that are working to pay for school alongside living expenses. These students may be dependent on a wage or salary to continue affording school. Luckily, there are grants and scholarships that students can take advantage of nowadays. But, depending on the cost of the college or university, this can only go so far. If the company the student works for chooses to lower their costs through laying them off, the force of that dependency would show through the student having to now cut costs.
Social Class 4.2
1.The distinction between employees and owners is that the employees usually uses their education to be part of the middle class while owners uses their earns to invest a long term and live from it, employees lives from their salary always seeking a rise
2.I understand from what Adam Smith said that labor is the mean where the the price can be established, people need to keep interested of what they need and want so it keeps the economy’s flow
3. I think that class is just a description of what your income relies on, but i think this might be also an ‘identity’ since the person might feel less or more rich than others and can assume his identity as his social value
4. I think that means that class depends on your income that depends on your sources, so class structures would be the things that make it possible, like income, role, education and so on and it is a form of dependency because the more you get education or income the more you class will change
Discussion Board 4.2
- 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?
