{"id":6253,"date":"2025-06-09T03:15:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/?p=6253"},"modified":"2025-06-09T03:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:16:02","slug":"mimi-shaw-discussion-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/2025\/06\/09\/mimi-shaw-discussion-4-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mimi Shaw \u2014 Discussion 4.2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reading 4.3 distinguishes owners and employees based on their source of income and their relationship to labor. Owners, often wealthy individuals or families, earn income from investments such as stocks, bonds, rents, and royalties. They profit from the labor of others rather than working themselves. An example of an owner would be a stockholder in a large corporation. Employees, on the other hand, earn their income through wages, salaries, or fees in exchange for their labor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adam Smith\u2019s quote emphasizes that labor is the true source of value. He argues that it is labor, not money, that gives products their real worth. From harvesting and manufacturing to distributing and selling, it is the human effort behind each stage that transforms raw materials into valuable goods. Money is only a symbolic measure; the actual \u201cprice\u201d of a product is the amount of labor that went into making it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reading 4.4 makes the important argument that class is not simply a personal identity or label, but a social relationship based on material conditions and economic roles. Class is about one\u2019s position in relation to the means of production whether you own capital or must sell your labor. This means that class is not about how someone feels or identifies, but about their role in the economic system. Understanding class this way helps clarify why economic inequality persists: it is built into the structure of capitalism itself, not just individual choices or behaviors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The \u201cclose form of dependency\u201d described in Reading 4.4 refers to the mutual dependence between owners and employees. Owners depend on workers to produce goods and generate profits, while workers depend on owners to provide jobs and wages. This relationship keeps both classes tied to one another, but not on equal terms. For example, in a factory, the owner needs the labor of workers to run machines and meet production goals, while the workers need the factory job to afford rent, food, and other essentials. This tight dependency maintains the structure of capitalism and reinforces inequality.<br><\/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":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-4-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253","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=6253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6258,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253\/revisions\/6258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6253"}],"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=6253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}