In this weeks reading, we read two excerpts from Karl Marx and Louis Althusser. In their excerpts, they talk about ideology and how the world and society are not only affected by that but also run by ideology in the capitalist culture that we are in.
In a capitalist culture, there are inequalities across the board. And one of the main ones is inequalities in wages. Not to be confused with inequalities in wealth, but rather inequalities in income, or the money that people receiving because of the work they do. This causes inequalities because different types of jobs require different qualifications and different skills. That is the reason that different jobs pay different amounts. Inequalities in the world and in the economy are necessary to an extent.
Imagine if everyone in the United States got paid the same amount of money for the different types of jobs that they do. There would be no income inequality, but there would be other inequalities that would arise from the different types of jobs and the work that is required to do those jobs. If a worker at a fast food joint was making the same amount of money that the CEO of a fortune 500 company, then one might argue that the problems that would arise from that could potentially be worse than the current issues that arise from the current wage gap.
Marx and Althusser talk about how elites use the education system to justify this. When people do not make it through college to the extent that most people do, then society uses that to justify why they don’t get paid as much as others do. In a way, this keeps somewhat of a balance in society. It gives the people that don’t make as much as the rest of society, a good reason as to why they don’t, so they don’t get upset with capitalism.
I like your take on the reading. The way that income works in the United States, a capitalist society, isn't perfect, not nearly, but if every income was the same, other problems would arise. Marx also declares that the people who aren't dictating the rules of our society are passive participants because they don't have the time to devote to reworking the societal structure. Sure, in present day with the accessibility that the general population has to technology, we're all able to receive and produce mass amounts of information and ideals. Yet no one actively aims to rework the entire structure. The system almost makes sure of that. You can't rework the structure when you have bills to pay. You don't want to rework the structure when you're already free on top.
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