Thank you for a reasonable response, they are rare. You used the term "exploit" to describe what employers do to employees in a Capitalist system. The majority of jobs in the US are provided by small businesses. The profit margins in small businesses run typically between 2% to 10%. I was a partner in a small business for years and they were most stressful years of my life. I believe that is all too easy to vilify the employer for not providing "a living wage" or characterizing them as fat cats getting wealthy on the backs of their workers. There are some instances of that, but they are the exception not the rule imo.
I agree. You're most likely a working-class person, who started a small local business. Under our capitalist economy, it makes perfect sense, and it's natural, for an employee to want to become an employer.
When a person strives to improve their position in life, under this type of economic system, where one is by default, being exploited and commodified in a "labor market", in order to eat and have a roof over their heads, they're not thinking in terms of "exploiting" others when they see themselves as an employer
(they don't want to exploit anyone).
This capitalist system is so effective in its exploitation of human labor, that both the exploiters and the exploited, often don't even recognize that they are functioning within a system of human exploitation and commodification. The small business owner that hires others to work for him or her, is not an evil, malicious oppressor, who doesn't care about his or her employees. Generally, these employers are good, decent people.
In the 1800s, African Americans were enslaved and even though there were some very decent, good, compassionate, generous slave masters. They were still within that system of slavery. It's the institution or system that is evil, not necessarily those who are by fate, of no fault of their own, trying to survive within that system. A slave might want to one day, free himself and his family, have his own plantation and then buy some slaves and treat them well. That's the system.
"If I ever become a freeman, I'm going to have my own land and I will own slaves, but I will treat them as if they were my brothers and sisters. I will treat my slaves, well, because they're made in the image of God, as I am. I will never abuse them. God is my witness."
A righteous slave master. A good decent human being, who is within a bad system. It's not really his fault. The institution is evil. Human beings shouldn't own or exploit other human beings, but those who are in that system, have been forced to function within that institution. They're not necessarily "EVIL".
My criticism is mostly, if not entirely, directed at the big money masters
(the big gangsters), not the owner of a mom-and-pop Pizzeria around the corner. My critique applies to those who corrupt our government with their wealth and power, and right now have us all on the brink of fighting WW3 with Russia in Ukraine.
Those who keep us addicted to fossil fuels when we could very easily generate and draw all of our electricity from modern, safe, and clean nuclear power plants. Wall Street, the bankers, big pharma, big agra, the billionaires who have way too much power in their hands, undermining our democracy.
Those multinational corporations destroying local economies throughout the USA, taking out all of the mom-and-pop stores in whatever community is unfortunate enough to fall victim to them.
I'm for labor rights, including the right of workers to unionize and negotiate collectively, as an organization, with their often, wealthy, powerful employers. I would advise workers "Don't demand too much, be fair". The master needs to benefit too, not just his employees. Let the employer make a profit, or else there's no employment.
Even if this capitalist system is one of
"human exploitation and commodification", its evils can be mitigated. Softened. Making capitalism benefit everyone rather than just a few people at the top.
