Vampires, Werewolves, and Economic Exploitation

For Marx, capitalism depends upon and perpetuates a system of relationships whereby members of one class of persons, capitalists, enjoys extensive and pervasive social and economic advantages over others. But on Marx’s analysis, this system of being-taken-advantage-of—this system of economic exploitation—is not to be understood by appeal to discrete incidents of fraud, bad deals, theft, or under-remuneration. Rather, the central contention of Marx’s analysis, the contention analyzed, developed, and evaluated here, is that economic exploitation is class exploitation, a phenomenon that occurs only within and because of the complex system of capitalist production. And it is because this system presupposes a set of oppressive social and economic ownership relations that are not freely chosen and yet govern the terms of participation in the economy and polity that it can be appropriately described as wrong or unjust.

Title	Vampires, Werewolves, and Economic Exploitation
Creator	Panichas, George E.
Publisher	Social Theory and Practice
Academic Department	Philosophy
Division	Humanities
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	1981
Date Available	2023-02-28
Type	Article
Language	English
Subject	Philosophy, Marxist (view authority )
	Exploitation (view authority )
	Marxian economics (view authority )
Keyword	Social and Political Philosophy
Keyword	Applied Philosophy
Bibliographic Citation	Panichas, George E. (1981). Vampires, Werewolves, and Economic Exploitation. Social Theory and Practice 7 (2):223-242. DOI: 10.5840/soctheorpract19817212.
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/kw52j9543
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.5840/soctheorpract19817212
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/kw52j9543
Rights Statement	In Copyright
Rights Holders	Philosophy Documentation Center