Exploitation

Exploitation is a particularly important component of Marxian theory. Some observers would say that it lies at the very heart of Marx's theory. Marx was a humanist who saw capitalism as preventing people from achieving species-being, or their true potential as human beings. A major roadblock to species-being for Marx is found in the structure of the capitalist system and the way in which it is constructed. That system not only permits and exacerbates the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists, but is also, in fact, based on that exploitation.

Marx's labor theory of value asserts that labor is the source of all wealth. Hence, the surplus value of the capitalist is derived from that labor and therefore from the exploitation of the worker. Capitalists ...