Is Capitalism exploitative? By Naeem Khan CSP.

Is Capitalism exploitative? By Naeem Khan CSP.

Critics of capitalism view wrongly that the system is inherently exploitative as capitalists control the means of production (e.g. factories, businesses, machinery and so on) and workers control only their labor, the worker is naturally coerced into allowing their labor to be exploited.

This is a wrong assumption as labor receives recompense for what it gives . We ask for employment ourselves.  Capitalists don't force us. There are labor unions,  associations and courts to redress any injustice with labor class. 

Nowadays machine is replacing typical labor so human capital is now only managers or scientists or technologists and  that image of poor shabby laborer is gone. 

In countries where Capitalism is in vogue like Japan or Canada or USA or Europe,  everyone is equally rich with all the basic facilities of life.  Both owners and workers of businesses are enjoying a satisfying life. We don't have low paid labor as minimum wages are around 20 dollars per hour.

Labor provides only time, energy and skill without any financial loss while capitalists provide land, capital,  Entrepreneurship,  time, energy,  mind and completion with so many others in the market. 

Capitalists or owners take more risks as if the product does not sell , the workers have their money, and it is the capitalist that is ruined.  Experts opine that  Capitalism is not exploitation, rather if left alone, it is an economic system that empowers both workers and employers to engage in mutually beneficial relationships.

Austrian School of  economists have argued that capitalism can organize itself into a complex system without an external guidance or central planning mechanism. Friedrich Hayek considered the phenomenon of self-organisation as underpinning capitalism. Prices serve as a signal as to the urgent and unfulfilled wants of people and the opportunity to earn profits if successful, or absorb losses if resources are used poorly or left idle, gives entrepreneurs incentive to use their knowledge and resources to satisfy those wants. Thus the activities of millions of people, each seeking their own interest, are coordinated.

The novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand made positive moral defenses of laissez-faire capitalism, most notably in her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged and in her 1966 collection of essays Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. She argued that capitalism should be supported on moral grounds, not just on the basis of practical benefits. Her ideas have had significant influence over conservative and libertarian supporters of capitalism, especially within the American Tea Party movement. Rand defined capitalism as "a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned". According to Rand, the role of government in a capitalist state has three broad categories of proper functions: first, the police "to protect men from criminals"; second, the armed services "to protect men from foreign invaders"; and third, the law courts "to settle disputes among men according to objective laws".