Shaira M.

Gampong

BSA 2A

They say "to exploit someone is to take unfair advantage of them." It is to use another person’s
vulnerability for one’s own benefit. By far the most influential theory of exploitation ever set forth
according to research is that of Karl Marx, who held that workers in a capitalist society are exploited
insofar as they are forced to sell their labor power to capitalists for less than the full value of the
commodities they produce with their labor.

Under capitalism, it seems that "money is everything" as owning (a part of) the means of production
requires either an innovative idea to create a method of production, or a lot of capital. This is why the
means of production are owned by a small group in society, called the bourgeoisie. And on the other
hand, most of the other people in society only own personal property, and have nothing to offer but
their labour. This group consists of workers, often referred to as the proletariat.

Since these ordinary laborers do not own the means of production, such as factories, buildings, and
materials, they have little power in the capitalist economic system. And this what makes exploitation a
flaw of Marxist theory as it leads the workers to view their employment as nothing more than a means
of survival. It creates an unequal society, since the power lies with those who own the means of
production and that it is impossible to fulfill one's own human essence. While the worker earns enough
to sustain himself, he is in effect performing unpaid labour and that is when a surplus value is created.
Thus, he thought that the capitalist system inherently contained the seeds of its own destruction,
because the alienation and exploitation of the proletariat that are fundamental to capitalist relations
would inevitably drive the working class to rebel against the bourgeoisie and seize control of the means
of production.

In Conclusion, Capitalism is centred around the extraction of surplus value from workers by capitalists.
This mechanism allows capitalists to make a profit while contributing nothing to the production process.
With that there is really a need for Private ownership to be abolished and the means of production
should be communally owned and controlled - as the way to end exploitation.