Quote from: FatherMcGruder on March 07, 2011, 04:03:20 AM

Quote from: myrkul on March 04, 2011, 09:49:06 PM

Please explain to me exactly how exploitation is inherent in each of these situations:

Employment

rental property

charging interest

because I don't see how, in the absence of coercion, any of these things is bad.

An employer sometimes takes advantage of his employees' lack of capital or market positioning or opportunity or vision or leadership in order to direct them as he pleases and take the products of their labor for relatively little in return.

A landlord often takes advantage of his tenants' lack of capital or connections or desire/ability to manage a property in order to take what little they get from their employers in exchange for the use of shelter on his terms.

A common type of lender takes advantage of his borrowers' lack of capital by overcharging them for the privilege to use his.

I genuinely think that exploitation is much easier and common in the heart of business than anyone these days seems to want to admit, but that conclusion only means something if you're willing to engage the complexity of the real world when you're coming to it. None of these issues are black and white--often only the actual person in the position of power truly knows whether exploitation is going on. I am pretty confident, though, that making blanket categorisations like this is totally ineffective at calling anyone to a higher standard--mostly because it's wrong. In the sense of being inaccurate, that is--I'm sure you mean well. But when you sit back and consider the lives that you've impacted, are there a lot of people in the business world on that list? Because if so, I could be completely off base. But if not, maybe this is why. We do need a much higher standard in the marketplace, especially for those that hold the reins more often than not. People who are going home saying to themselves, "that's just business" or even "that's just good business" need to know that they're lying to themselves so they can actually deal with what they're doing to themselves and others. But you can't get there by painting the whole canvas with one giant brush, because that's not how art is done unless you're Kazimir Malevich. And accountability is an art, make no mistake. Anyone benefiting from an exploitative situation is going to have built themselves some pretty big psychological defenses. And those things can blow holes in overgeneralisations from miles away. Trust me, I would know. My two cents.

eMansipater