Exploitation as Theft vs. Exploitation as Underpayment.pdfVIP

Exploitation as Theft vs. Exploitation as Underpayment Lamont Rodgers San Jacinto College BIBLID [0873-626X (2015) 40; pp. 45-59] Abstract Marxists claim capitalists unjustly exploit workers, and this exploita- tion is to show that workers ought to hold more than they do. This paper presents two accounts of exploitation. The Theft Account claims that capitalists steal some of the value to which workers are entitled. The Underpayment Account holds that capitalists are not entitled to pay workers as little as they do, even if the workers are not entitled to the full value they produce. This paper argues that only the Theft Account can explain why workers ought to hold more than they do. The Underpayment Account cannot yield this conclusion. The Theft Account is superior to the Underpayment Account insofar as exploita- tion is to be an injustice—a wrong that requires the exploited party to hold more. Keywords Marx, exploitation, theft, underpayment, entitlements. Marxists hold that capitalists unjustly exploit workers. As a result of this unjust exploitation, we are to be able to infer that workers should have more than capitalists give them. G.A. Cohen argues that the Marxist account of capitalist exploitation of workers rests on the belief that workers are entitled to the surplus product they produce.1 Capitalists unjustly seize that surplus product. Call this the “Theft Account” of exploitation. Cohen argues that this com- mitment is anathema to the egalitarian concerns of Marxists.2 If the 1 Cohen 1995: 211. 2 The way to think of Cohen’s position here is that he is pointing to a tension between the Marxist account