Henry Hazlitt on Marxism

The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are.  Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community.  Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others.  Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.

~ Henry Hazlitt

Milton Friedman on economic fallacies

Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

~ Milton Friedman

Rob Weir on Karl Marx's theory of exploitation

Q: What do Libertarians and economists on Quora think of the Surplus Value exploitation brought up my Marxists? 

A: From an economic perspective it is incoherent nonsense.  But it lingers on for its rhetorical value. 

Remember, it was never the case that Marx sweated over his economic thinking, writing two thick books and nearly finishing a third, before he arrived at the conclusion that capitalism was bad and socialism was the way forward. 

It was nothing like this.  Marx came to his conclusion relatively early in his life, based on his philosophical leanings, stuff he cobbled together from Hegel and others.  He went to economics in an attempt to make a “scientific” argument for what he already thought to be true. 

That economic argument was a total mess, and no serious economist takes it seriously today.  It is only good for slogans now.  However, the underlying philosophical insights that led Marx along this path, views on things like alienation, exploitation, class, dialectic, historical materialism, etc., all these non-economic ideas, have been quite durable and pervade the humanities and the social sciences, to this day.

~ Rob Weir, Quora, January 4, 2021

Henry Hazlitt on Marxism

The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are.  Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community.  Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others...  This basic hatred is the heart of Marxism.

~ Henry Hazlitt

Kevin Duffy on exploitation

Quora: How do libertarians address the issue of exploitation?

Duffy: Libertarians differ from most when addressing the issue of exploitation in two fundamental ways. First, they view exchange at the individual level vs. the abstract level. E.g., the “U.S.” doesn’t trade with “China.” Apple engages in various exchanges with Chinese employees, suppliers, consumers and shareholders. Second, they focus on the nature of the exchange. Is it coerced or voluntary? If coerced, exploitation exists; one party benefits at the expense of the other. If voluntary, both parties enter into the exchange because they expect to benefit. The operative word, of course, is “expect.” There are no guarantees and people often look back at decisions with regret. All part of the learning process. The future is uncertain and always will be.

Through the libertarian lens, what are some examples of exploitation? At the individual level, the answer is clear: rape, murder, robbery, fraud.

Greedy capitalists

What about at the abstract level? Do "greedy capitalists" exploit "helpless workers?" As long as no one is putting a gun to anyone’s head, no. If an employer and employee agree to an exchange, both parties expect to benefit. The employer prefers the labor services of the employee over the wage he’s willing to pay. The employee prefers the money he receives above the time spent doing the work. Win-win. If either party feels they are no longer benefiting, they are free to walk away (unless there is a contract that commits both to a certain amount of time).

Trade deficit with China

Is China exploiting the U.S. because they run a large trade surplus? Again, no. Since the exchanges involved are all voluntary, they must be mutually beneficial. Apple sells iPhones to Chinese consumers. Apple receives money (they have a money surplus and goods deficit) while the buyer receives an iPhone (they have a money deficit and goods surplus). Walmart buys products from Chinese suppliers. Even though they run a money deficit, they do so willingly… because they benefit. Walmart's Chinese suppliers run money deficits with their employees. Again, both parties benefit. Trade surpluses and deficits are an accounting fiction. Do you worry about running a chronic trade deficit with your local grocery store?

Sweatshops

Does a multinational firm setting up a factory in a poor country exploit its workers? If entered into freely and peacefully, the exchange only takes place if both parties benefit. E.g., if Nike builds a sneaker factory in Bangladesh, they must make the wages and work environment enticing enough to attract workers from their current jobs. They have to give them a better deal. They have to improve their lives. Some call this “unfair.” Libertarians call it heroic.

Taxation

How does a libertarian judge taxation? Is this a voluntary, mutually beneficial exchange or is it coercive and exploitative? The question answers itself.

~ Kevin Duffy, Quora answer, February 9, 2020

Malcom X on the death of capitalism (1962)

It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture…It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.

Malcolm X, racial activist, 1962

Friedrich Hayek on class exploitation

There has never been a worse and more cruel exploitation of one class by another than that of the weaker or less fortunate members of a group of producers by the well-established which has been made possible by the "regulation" of competition.

~ Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, page 129

John Mackey on exploitation, entrepreneurship, and the profit motive

Politically, I drifted to the Left and embraced the ideology that business and corporations were essentially "evil" because they sought profits. I believed that government was "good" (if the "right" people had control of it) because it altruistically worked for the public interest.

[I'd been taught that] business and capitalism were based on exploitation: exploitation of consumers, workers, society and the environment. I believed that "profit" was a necessary evil at best and certainly not a desirable goal for society as a whole. However, becoming an entrepreneur completely changed my life. Everything I believed about business was proven to be wrong.

No one is forced to trade with a business; customers have competitive alternatives in the marketplace; employees have competitive alternatives for their labor; investors have different alternatives and places to invest their capital. Investors, labor, management, suppliers — they all need to cooperate to create value for their customers.

In other words, business is not a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser. It is a win, win, win, win game.

~ John Mackey, founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market, "The Transformation of John Mackey," Mises.org, June 13, 2008, by Ralph R. Reiland