The Exploitation Theory of Socialism-Communism

I. Historical Survey of Exploitation Theory

• A. General Characteristics of Exploitation Theory
  • 1. Mortal Struggle Between Socialism and Capitalism
  • 2. Socialist Theory of Origin of Interest Is That It Is Exploitation
• B. Pre-Socialist Economists Influenced by Exploitation Theory
  • 3. Adam Smith and David Ricardo As Ambiguous Sources
  • 4. Others as Forerunners of Exploitation Theory
  • 5. Sources of More-Explicit and More-Aggressive Exploitation Theories
  • 6. William Thompson on Exploitation of Laborers
  • 7. Sismondi on Exploitation of Laborers
• C. Socialists
  • 8. Proudhon on Exploitation of Laborers
  • 9. Rodbertus on Exploitation of Laborers
  • 10. Ferdinand Lassalle on Exploitation of Laborers
• D. Acceptance of Exploitation Theory Not Restricted to Socialists
  • 11. Ideas of Guth on Exploitation of Laborers
  • 12. Ideas of Dühring on Exploitation of Laborers
• E. Essential Principle of the Theory, Namely, That Labor Is the Only Source of All Value

II. General Structure of This Description and Critique of Exploitation Theory

• 1. How Robertus and Marx Came to Be Selected
• 2. What Is and What Is Not Here Being Considered

III. Rodbertus's Theory of Interest

• A. Detailed Presentation of Rodbertus's Theory
  • 1. Rodbertus Considers His Theory To Be Based on Smith and Ricardo
  • 2. How Rodbertus Formulates His Claims for Laborer
  • 3. Rodbertus's Statement of the General Problem of Interest
  • 4. Rodbertus, on the Greater Laborer's Productivity, the Greater the Exploitation
  • 5. Rodbertus Divides Production Into Raw Production and Manufacture
  • 6. No Relationship Between Amount of Capital Employed and Interest Received on Capital
  • 7. Rodbertus's Distinction of Difference Between Interest on Land and Interest on Capital
  • 8. Rodbertus Surprisingly Asks No Abolition of Private Property or Unearned Income
• B. Deficiencies of Rodbertus's System
  • 9. Böhm-Bawerk: It Is Downright Wrong To Maintain That All Goods, Economically Considered, Are Solely a Product of Labor
  • 10. Smith and Ricardo Are, Despite Their Fame, Inadequate Authorities
  • 11. Rodbertus's Errors on "Costing"
  • 12. Rodbertus's Approach to Labor Costing Must Be Extended to Costing Other Elements of Production
  • 13. Rodbertus's First Major Error: Goods Are the Product of Manual Labor Only
  • 14. Rodbertus's Second Major Error: Neglects Significance of TIME on Value
  • 15. Böhm-Bawerk's Illustration of Five Socialists Building a Steam Engine, and Being Paid Unequally, But Justly
  • 16. Rodbertus's Third Error: Exchange Value of Goods Is Determined According to Quantity of Labor Embodies in It
  • 17. How Rodbertus Really Misrepresents Ricardo's Views (Namely, by an Omission)
  • 18. What Ricardo Presents Merely as an Exception Should Have Been His Main Explanation of Interest. Rodbertus Was Too Indiscriminating and "Poor" a Reader of Ricardo
  • 19. Rodbertus's Fourth Error: His Doctrine Contradicts Itself in Important Respects; His Law of the General Tendency Toward Equalization of All Surplus Proceeds Contradicts Most Important Contentions of His Interest Theory in General, and His Theory of Interest on Land in Particular
  • 20. Rodbertus's Fifth Error: His General and Astounding Error, Which Makes Him Unable to Offer Any Explanation for One Important Aspect of Phenomena of Interest
  • 21. Concluding Critique of Rodbertus's Doctrine on Interest: (a) Unsound in Foundation; (b) False in Conclusions; (c) Self-Contradictory

IV. Marx's Theory of Interest

• A. Detailed Presentation of Marx's Theory
  • 1. Marx's Theory of Interest More Extreme Than Rodbertus's
  • 2. Marx's Dialectics on Value
  • 3. Marx's "Socially Necessary Labor Time"
  • 4. Marx's "Law of Value"
  • 5. Marx's "Surplus" Value
  • 6. Marx's Innovations as Compared with Rodbertus's
• B. Weakness of Marx's Proof By Authority, Based on Smith and Ricardo
  • 7. Neither Smith Nor Ricardo Substantiated Their Own Work
• C. Examination and Refutation of Marx's Basic Proposition
  • 8. Marx Selected a Defective Method of Analysis
  • 9. Matters Antecedent to an Exchange Must Evidence Inequality Rather Than Equality
  • 10. Marx's Erroneous Intellectual Method
  • 11. Marx's Fallacy Consisting in Biased Selection of Evidence
  • 12. Böhm-Bawerk's Idea That Marx Had "An Intellect of the Very First Order"
  • 13. Other Methods of Approach Than Marx Here Uses
  • 14. Five Factual Exceptions Neglected by Marx
  • 15. How Marx Worsened Ricardo's Error
  • 16. Two Contradictory Posthumous Volumes of Marxian System (by Engles; Vol. II in 1885, and Vol. III in 1894)

V. Marxian Doctrine as Interpreted by His Successors

• 1. Werner Sombart's Reinterpretation
• 2. Konrad Schmidt's Reinterpretation
• 3. Edward Bernstein's Reinterpretation

VI. Conclusion

Additional Essays

• Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and the Discriminating Reader
  Ludwig von Mises
• Publisher's Postscript
  (includes Böhm-Bawerk's "The Austrian Economists"; see pp. 116-135)
• The Marxian Theory of Wage Rates
  Ludwig von Mises
• Portrait of an Evil Man
  Erik von Kuhnelt-Leddihn