1.Owners make money from investments. Their wealth comes from other people’s work. The text gives an example of wealthy stockholders who own giant corporations. These people get rich because others work for them. For example, Jeff Bezos, who owns shares in Amazon and profits from the labor of hundreds of thousands of employees. On the other hand, employees make money from their own work. They earn wages, salaries, and fees by doing jobs. They must work to survive. The text mentions factory workers, service workers, professionals, and managers as examples. 

The main difference is not how much money people make. For example, a warehouse worker at Amazon who packs boxes, creates value, and earns wages, but does not benefit from the full profit their labor produces. 

2.Adam Smith’s quote explains that labor creates all economic value. He says labor is “the ultimate and real standard” for measuring the value of everything we buy and sell. Money prices are just numbers on the surface. The real value comes from the human work that went into making things. Without human work, the tree stays just a tree. Labor transforms it into something people will pay for. This is why Smith says labor is the real source of value, not money.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ The text shows this idea with a simple example. A tree in the forest has no economic value by itself. It becomes valuable paper or furniture only when people work on it. Workers must harvest the tree, cut the lumber, and manufacture the final product.

3.Heideman argues that liberals who dismiss class politics as “just another form of identity politics” misunderstand what socialists mean by class. Class is a structural relationship, not just a category people belong to. While race or gender are identities people have, class is a position that forces people to act in certain ways. Workers must sell their labor to survive. Bosses must exploit workers to stay profitable. So class politics isn’t “identity politics for workers. It’s about changing the basic structure of how society works. For example, A nurse and a tomato picker may have very different incomes and education levels, but they occupy the same structural position because they both must sell their labor to survive.

4.The “Close Form of Dependency”This means class relationships create direct, ongoing dependence between specific people. Workers depend on particular bosses for jobs. Bosses depend on particular workers for profit. They’re stuck together in ongoing relationships. Everyone depends on capitalists because they control the factories, offices, and resources we all need. For example, A factory town where the main employer threatens to close unless they get tax breaks. The workers need that specific job. The boss needs those specific workers. But the whole town – stores, schools, government becomes dependent on keeping that boss satisfied. Everyone gets forced to accept the boss’s demands, even if it means accepting environmental damage, lower wages, or reduced public services.