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Name: Bianca Burciaga
Teachers: Ms.Gisella, Ms.Lizardo, and Mr.Guadalupe
Subject: Research Methods
PA Title: Social Theory
Explanation: I chose to present my social theory. In the process of this we had to think of a problem in our society. Then, make it into a social theory and get a minimum of 3 pieces evidence to back it up such as, articles, songs, or videos. Afterwards we created a poem about that subject that describes our personal opinions on it. In each class we did something different but it was all for the same project. In the end, we took all the work for every class and put it together on a website called padlet. I ended up learning different ways to research the same subject. Along with how to look for valid sources.

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B. (2011, September 17). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzNZJMz1tUk

J. (2008, April 28). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpidCc7wwY

N. (2016, March 27). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XED2nmCFNk

The Use of Language in Animal FarmAnimal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory in which animals are personified to represent the struggles - GCSE English - Marked by Teachers.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/english/the-use-of-language-in-animal-farmanimal-farm-by-george-orwell-is-an-allegory-in-which-animals-are-personified-to-represent-the-struggles.html

U. (2009, August 05). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwMknGllKawSakisaka),
I. (n.d.). Exploitation of Labor. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/sakisaka/exploitation.htm

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I think a solution could be to not treat anyone as more powerful then the other. We should all just be treated equally no matter how different a person might look, act, or have. I think this could be the solution because if no one is seen as more powerful then no one gets hurt or taken advantage of. We shouldn't let money get to our heads and believe that someone is more powerful just because they have more of anything. Another solution could be to live in a society where there are people with power but that person uses their power to help people not to hurt them. I think this would work because the people in power would be happy because they have power. And the people who don't have power will be happy because they don't have to worry about being taken advantage of and they are being helped by someone who has the power and resources to help.

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I created this theory because I realized a lot of people without power are being taken advantage of by people with power. They have been used in many different ways. For example, they have been exploited. Exploitation is when someone that has a lot of power, uses someone that doesn't  to benefit the people in power. People with power do this to stay at the top. I see this in society because people always find ways to stay in power. An example can be a landlord because the worker has to keep paying them each month to live in that piece of land. The landlord gets more and more money and the working class stay at the bottom. It could also be people getting paid less than what they actually deserve. I think this is an important topic because people shouldn’t be getting treated this way we should all be treated equal and no one should be seen as powerful or not powerful.

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Artist: Dead Kennedys
Song:  Soup Is Good Food
Published: Apr 28, 2008
Website: Youtube
What I believe its about is how people are used until someone or something better comes along. I believe this because in the beginning it says, "We're sorry but you're no longer needed or wanted or even cared about here machines can do a better job than you" which makes me believe that some people are used until something better comes along. This connects to my theory because people are being used because they are the only ones that can do the job otherwise they wouldn't even have the job.

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We're sorry But you're no longer needed Or wanted Or even cared about here Machines can do a better job than you This is what you get for asking questions The unions agree 'Sacrifices must be made' Computers never go on strike To save the working man you've got to

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Speaker: Richard Wolff
Published:  Mar 27, 2016
Website: Youtube
My fourth piece of evidence is a video of a man called Richard Wolff explaining Marx's Labor Theory. He stated that people are being exploited because the amount of money people  are making in a job is way less then what they should actually be making. This was proved because in the video he said," The only way I'll hire you is if you produce more in the hour than I give you." This connects to my topic because it shows that people are working hard and are making less money then they actually deserve. He explained it by saying that while they are working they make a lot of goods and items for the owner to sell (depending on what job they have). The owner pays them a certain amount for how much time they work not for what they did while working. The items that the worker made or got for the owner could be sold for way more money then the actual worker is getting for making or getting that certain item or object. He explains this by saying," For every hour that you give me your work, your brains, your muscles , to work I'm gonna have more stuff to sell at the end of the day." This relates to my theory because the workers are getting less money than they actually deserve. Overall, workers are being exploited because the money they work for is way less then the money they should be getting and they money they deserve is going to the guy that he is working for therefore making him more powerful.

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Richard Wolff - Marx's Labour exploitation theory (in under four minutes)

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Excerpt from Richard Wolff interviewed by Abby Martin on Telesur's "The Empire Files" 18Mar2016

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Article: Exploitation of Labor
Author: Itsurō Sakisaka
Website: Marxists.org
Published: 2006
This article talks about how as long as society is split based on class, the workers will always be exploited by the higher class. I thought this because the first sentence states, "As long as we are dealing with a class-divided society -- regardless of the historical era -- human labor-power is exploited; the only difference is the form this has taken." This quote connects to my theory because based on class, people determine how much power you have. This article is proving that people with a lot of power (high class) exploit the people with less power (low class). Along with how they find ways to make sure they stay in power and the others stay below him/her. He states all his evidence and reasons why he believes that this is true. One of them stated, "50 percent for master, 50 percent for peasant." This quote proves my point because the workers should be getting 100 percent instead of 50. This also proves my point because how people with more power( high class) are hurting the ones that don't by exploiting the less powerful(working class).

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Itsurō Sakisaka

Source: One section of Sakisaka's 1967 book of Shihon-ron nyumon (Introduction to Capital)
Translated: for marxists.org by Michael Schauerte;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2006.

As long as we are dealing with a class-divided society -- regardless of the historical era -- human labor-power is exploited; the only difference is the form this has taken.

The idle lives of a minority ruling class can only be maintained by products, needless to say. So the only method to bring about this state of affairs is to appropriate, gratis, the fruits of labor of those who work by the sweat of their brow.

We don't have to read the account of Sōgōro Sakura (1597-1645) [1] to know that the daimyo in Japan appropriated a yearly tribute; it is sufficient to merely consider the great number of peasant uprisings at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867).

Capitalism represents an historical era in which commodity production spans the entirety of society. Human labor-power is commodified. As a commodity, labor-power also has value. And a wage is received that is the price of this commodity. Because surplus-labor is exploited in the form of commodity production, surplus-labor takes the form of surplus-value. Capitalism is highly developed commodity production so the exploitation of surplus-labor likewise represents an extremely complex issue.

In the case of the exploitation of slave labor, by contrast, things are exceedingly clear. Slaves, who exist as a sort of animal owned by another human being, have no freedom. Like a dog, a slave is unable to exercise any degree of physical or mental freedom. The products of a slave's labor belong in their entirety to the slave owner. All that is received in return is food.

A peasant, meanwhile, is a sort of half-person. Firmly tied to the land, a peasant cannot choose what to grow or which land to grow it on, nor is he free to choose a profession. To the extent that peasants cultivate the plot of land they are provided, they are able to obtain food, clothing and lodging. But the fruit of their labor on the lord's fields entirely belong to this master. There is thus a clear, temporal division between the labor the peasants perform for themselves and that performed for the feudal lord. This makes it difficult to conceal the fact that labor is exploited.

And when, as subsequently occurs, some of the products from the land the peasants themselves cultivate must be paid as a tribute to this lord, in addition to their labor to cultivate the lord's fields, this also clearly presents itself as exploitation because it takes an in-kind form. Even though the yearly rice tribute was referred to in Japanese as goko-gomin (50 percent for master, 50 percent for peasant), this did not change the fact that the master's share was also the product of the peasant's labor.

Under capitalism, however, things are different. Labor-power is commodified and thus sold according to its value. The means of production are also purchased and owned by the capitalist class. Capitalists come into possession of the means of production and labor-power through the process of circulation, as well as the resulting products that likewise flow back to them via the circulation process to meet their needs. Even if everything is bought and sold at its value, capitalists are able to obtain the surplus-labor that forms surplus-value. What is the secret behind all of this?

Simply put, it can be explained with the following example.

A newspaper article -- I can't recall the exact year -- listed the capitalist Kōsuke Matsushita as the person in Japan with the largest income. I don't know anything about Mr. Matsushita personally, and just happened to see this article, but here I would like to use his case to illustrate exploitation. This example, incidentally, will assume that products and labor-power are sold at their value.

In the triangular diagram, A represents the value to replace the worn-out machinery and factories, which is deducted from the value of the products sold in the year. It is assumed, therefore, that this part is accumulated every year in order for production to continue at the same scale in the subsequent year. There is in fact one component of surplus-value included within this part, but here it will not be considered as such, and will be considered rather as the value of the constant capital from machinery, factories and the like within the value of the products.

Part B in the diagram represents the raw materials and supplementary materials, etc. which today also include gcomplex elements.h It also contains a part of surplus-value, but as for A we will set this aside, assuming that there are merely sufficient funds to continue production on the same scale the subsequent year.

In the case of C, we have the fund acquired from out this year's production for the labor wages that need to be expended for the following year's production.

Finally D is the assumed 500 million yen in personal income of Mr. Matsushita:

Everything here is posed in the simplest form possible. And the prevalent view of Mr. Matsushita as a capable man also suits our example.

A and B are constant capital, while C is variable capital.

The small black triangle on top of the horizontal line is the capitalist -- in this case, Kōsuke Matsushita. We will assume, simply, that his personal income is 500 million yen. The larger triangle below the horizontal line represents the entire labor of those who work for Matsushita electronics, their total labor-time, as well as the entire labor and labor-power of the means of production consumed in one year. This can also be thought of as the total products of Matsushita Electronics.

The total products of Matsushita Electronics are represented by the larger triangle. We are assuming that all of the products are sold at their value. The owner of all of the means of production is Mr. Matsushita. So all of the money from the sale of the products belongs to him. Because production has to continue, and the assumption here that production contains at the same scale, the machines and factories used up in production must to be replaced. For this replacement, every year a replacement fund, indicated as part A, is accumulated. It corresponds to one part of each year's sales and is deducted from the sale of the products.

Next, in order for production to continue, the raw materials for the following year must be secured. To secure this value, it must likewise be deducted from the sale of the products. And it is of course necessary to employ workers in order for production to be possible, so the labor wages for the following year must also be acquired. Again, this is taken from out of the total sales.

The 500 million that ultimately remains, after all of these deductions, goes into Mr. Matsushita's wallet. This comes, needless to say, from out of the total sales.

Reality is of course far more complex, but broadly speaking this is the situation.

The sums of money for each of the parts above are deducted from the sale of the total products of Matsushita Electronics. These are products that were created from the labor of the workers employed by the company. Not a single product could have been created without the labor of these workers.

Granted, for their labor workers make use of raw materials, machinery, and factories. They employ the means of production for their labor, as we have noted. The products of Matsushita Electronics could not be created without the use of these means of production, which are, moreover, highly advanced. Most of these means of production, needless to say, were not created by the labor of the Matsushita Electronics workers themselves. Still, workers in a factory somewhere produced them, using whatever machinery and raw materials were necessary. Apart from land, all of the means of production are things that are produced. And since land is not the product of labor, here we will set it aside as a factor.

The means of production are also the product of labor. However, they do not represent newly expended labor. Only workers labor anew and expend labor. Labor is newly expended in the creation of the products of Matsushita Electronics.

The company's machine-made electrical appliances can thus be said to contain the labor from the machinery, factories, raw materials, etc. which are used, and the labor newly expended by the workers. The larger triangle, as mentioned already, expresses both this old labor and the newly expended labor -- i.e. dead labor and living labor.

The dead labor is contained in the means of production, so it is merely transferred to the Matsushita Electronic products. This occurs gradually, in line with the wear and tear on the means of production, until the means of production can no longer be used as such, which also marks the end of this transfer of labor. All of the labor contained in the means of production can only be transferred; there is no way for what is contained in the means of production to be augmented.

Since the labor-power could be the labor of four, eight, or even twelve hours, the amount of labor expended can be augmented. The value of the labor-power is decided by the consumption goods necessary to maintain the life of the worker, making it possible for that person to exist as a human being who expends the same labor today as yesterday. In order to maintain labor-power, because a worker as a human being is not just flesh and blood but also requires the intellectual and cultural elements necessary for human life, goods produced must include products that satisfy a worker's cultural and entertainment needs, in addition to what is necessary to maintain the worker's physical state.

Let's take a look at the diagram again. The labor included in A and B cannot be augmented. However, because the 500 million in value emerges from out of the money from the sales, it had to have been generated somewhere along the way. The products of the entirety of the labor included in the triangular diagram constitute the money from the sales. This means that the 500 million in value is likewise the embodiment of human labor. Where, then, does the augmented part come from? The value of both A and B only has the capability of being transferred. The labor contained therein can only be transferred, and is unable to expend new labor.

But C, which is the capital expended on the labor wages, purchases labor-power. The worker is a living being and is able to perform the labor that forms the substance of value. The quantity of this newly created labor generates more new labor the longer it is exerted. If the worker were to only work for the amount that would cover his own wages, he would receive part C -- but Mr. Matsushita would end up not being able to pocket his 500 million in value. The 500 million is the product of human labor. And this is uncompensated labor that is squeezed out of the workers. It is only possible to realize this 500 million in value through the sale of products that contain this sum as the outcome of the workers laboring longer than the labor time included in their wages. The part of the value from the means of production worn out in the production ( A and B) has already entered the value of the products, and it is then recovered from their sale.

What forms the 500 million is the crystallization of the sweat and blood of the workers. Anyone who doubts this should consider what would happen if Matsushita's workers were to cease their labor. All of the means of production (machinery, factories, raw materials, etc.) would rust and rot, and no value could be transferred to products at all. The means of production themselves would go to waste and return to nature, so the creation of the 500 would be unthinkable.

Marx uses the term surplus-value to refer to the value that the capitalist pockets without compensation. Thus surplus-value is the fruit of the exploitation of workers' labor. No class-divided society -- including slave-based or feudal societies -- can exist without exploiting the labor of those who live by the sweat of their brow. The social class that owns the means of production, or is able to freely dispose of them, which is to say the ruling class, cannot live without exploiting the labor of those who work.

The widespread view regarding Kōsuke Matsushita is that he is an upstanding individual. In capitalist society, however, no matter how upstanding a person may be, he cannot enrich himself without exploiting labor, which is to say expropriating the labor of many other people. There is simply no other way to be a capitalist.

In a survey of university students, one item asked them which person they most respected. The individual most frequently mentioned was Kōsuke Matsushita. Everyone, of course, is entitled to respect whomever he likes. But these university students are respecting a person who is not even aware of his own essence, and who considers himself to be a good person. Both the students, as well as the object of their respect, have overlooked the importance of human qualities. Many people who came before us have had to perish before people could become aware of themselves as human beings. This is something we can learn from Capital.

Once the means of production have become capital, a certain quantity of value is augmented through the exploitation of labor. And this valorizing value is capital. In a commodity-production society, labor-power also becomes a commodity, and production can be carried out by investing a certain amount of money in order to purchase labor-power and means of production, and then combining them. By doing this, the sum of money invested becomes valorizing value, thus becoming capital.

Marx refers to the value invested on the means of production as constant capital. The value of the means of production is merely transferred to the products. The value invested on labor-power is called variable capital. The expenditure of new labor creates value that exceeds the value of labor-power. This distinction between two types of capital is of great significance in Marx's Capital. This is a natural, logical conclusion from the labor theory of value. And it can be considered an indispensable distinction within the worldview of Marx. Nowhere within bourgeois economics, however, can this distinction be found.

Endnotes

1. A village chief who was forced to witness the beheading of his sons by the samurai lord Kozuke Hotta after protesting against unfair taxes.

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Itsurō Sakisaka Source: One section of Sakisaka's 1967 book of Shihon-ron nyumon (Introduction to Capital) Translated: for marxists.org by Michael Schauerte; CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2006. As long as we are dealing with a class-divided society -- regardless of the historical era -- human labor-power is exploited; the only difference is the form this has taken.

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Artist: Immortal Technique ft. Mumia Abu
Song: The war vs. us all
Published: August 5, 2009
Website: Youtube
I got this song by researching immortal technique and I came across this song. I looked for the lyrics and realized that it relates to my topic because it indicates that we are spending billions of dollars on weapons and war when we could be spending that money on the people.  I know this because in the song it states, "That's because the billions and billions that are being spent on this War the cost of tanks, rocketry, bullets and yes even salaries for the 125, 000 plus troops, is money that will never be spent on;education, on healthcare, on the reconstruction of crumbling public housing" this relates to my topic because we are spending money on stuff that could get us killed instead of spending it on helping our community. It also explains how people work hard to make that money expecting it to be spent on them and their community.But instead it's going towards something that can get them killed. I say this because these people work for the money to get spent on weapons for war.  If they actually get in a war those people who worked for that money could end up getting killed because our government decided to spend the money on war instead of healthcare. This is related to my topic because  the people in power are the people that want to start a war. The working class people get exploited because all the money they worked for doesn't get spent to help them . I know war isn't something they want because in the song it states,"The fight against the War is really to fight for your own interest."  This quote is connected to my theory because they are fighting for their own needs instead of ours. Therefore, people without power are being exploited because some of the money they worked for ends up benefiting the people in power(the people who want to start the war) instead of us.

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The War vs. Us All - Immortal Technique ft. Mumia Abu Jamal

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A short but extremely significant speech by Mumia Abu Jamal. He shares some insight on some current events. For more information about Mumia Abu Jamal, visit http://www.prisonradio.org/index.htm

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Article: The Use of Language in Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Website: Marked by Teachers
The entire article was about how an app is demonstrating power with certain characters by they way they talk and act. I know this because in the article it states, " they govern everything that happens, whether it is something as miner as eating a meal, or something as major and important as fighting a strategic battle" this led me to believe that specific characters are the ones who are in charge of everything. This connects to my theory because it shows that people in power can control /exploit the people without power and make them do whatever they want. Those characters talk to the rest of the characters like they are nothing and the app makes it seems like they are the most powerful beings in the world. Afterwards, they make sure they stay in power by taking advantage of the others and making them do work to benefit them. According to the article, "They have no choice, but to listen" this quote made me realize that they had to listen to ones in power. This quote is connected to my thesis because it shows that people without power feel like they don't have a choice but to listen to the people that are. This article proves my point because it  explains  that exploitation done by the powerful people can be seen in  the most smallest places, including an app.

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Artist: Bob Miller
Song: The Rich Man and the Poor Man
Published: Sep 17, 2011
Website: YouTube
The first song I chose was called The Rich Man and the Poor Man by Bob Miller. It was about the difference between how a rich man and a poor man get treated. Along with how the rich man has the power to steal millions of dollars of a company he owns and doesn't get caught. While the poor man would get 10 years in prison if he were to do that. This relates to my topic because the rich man can get  whatever he wants from the people that work for him. While the people that might work for him(the poor man) are struggling with everything. It also relates to my topic because he can steal from his company, while the people that work for him work really hard to get that money and they probably needed it  more than he did.

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Bob Miller - The Rich Man and the Poor Man 1932