{"id":6160,"date":"2025-06-09T03:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/?p=6160"},"modified":"2025-06-09T03:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:15:15","slug":"mimi-shaw-discussion-5-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/2025\/06\/09\/mimi-shaw-discussion-5-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mimi Shaw \u2014 Discussion 5.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
    \n
  1. In order to make products, you need two things: the means of production and labor. The means of production are the physical tools and materials used to create goods and services. For example, to make a hat, you need fabric, needles, thread, and a sewing machine. In a capitalist economy, these tools are typically owned by capitalists, not the workers. This is important because whoever controls the means of production also controls the profits. Labor is the actual work performed by people using those tools. The person sewing the hat and assembling it is performing labor, and it\u2019s this labor that makes the final product possible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Labor creates value. According to the labor theory of value, the amount of labor needed to make something is what gives it value. Value is measured in time and effort. The more labor it takes to make a product under normal conditions, the more valuable that product is considered to be. For example, a dress usually requires more time and effort to make than a hat, so the dress would have more value. What makes something valuable is not just the material or the final product, but the amount of labor used to create it. Labor creates value. According to the labor theory of value, the amount of labor needed to make something is what gives it value. Value is measured in time and effort. The more labor it takes to make a product under normal conditions, the more valuable that product is considered to be. For example, a dress usually requires more time and effort to make than a hat, so the dress would have more value. What makes something valuable is not just the material or the final product, but the amount of labor used to create it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Labor and value are connected because labor is the source of all value. When people work to make products, the time and effort they spend gets turned into value. If something takes more labor to produce, it will be more valuable. This is why the work that goes into making a dress adds more value than the work that goes into making a hat. In capitalism, this value is often taken by the capitalist, even though it\u2019s created by the worker.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Labor is the actual work someone does, while labor power is their ability to work. Labor power is what a worker sells to an employer in exchange for a wage. The employer doesn\u2019t just pay for what a worker produces, but for the worker\u2019s ability to work during a set time. For example, a person making $16 an hour would have to work about 78 hours to make $1,000 for rent. Their labor power is being sold to the employer, and what they get in return is a wage; not the full value of what they produce.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Surplus value is the extra value that workers create beyond what they are paid. It is what allows capitalists to make a profit. For example, if a fast food worker earns $128 for an 8-hour day, but the food they help produce and sell is worth $1,000, the extra $872 is surplus value that the capitalist keeps. This matters in understanding social class because it shows how workers are exploited. They create more value than they are paid for, and that difference becomes the capitalist\u2019s profit. Knowing about surplus value helps explain the economic power gap between workers and owners.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-5-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6255,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160\/revisions\/6255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}