Capitalism an Inherently Exploitative System

Informal Introduction @MaesterAemon I'm sorry to read that people have trouble getting your username right. I try to be thorough, but no one's perfect. If I can be informal here for a little longer... Although I may be wrong, my impression from reading your previous debate [1] and your profile [2] is that your consider yourself a socialist. I have a conjecture that your attack on capitalism is more about this preference that you have. After all, it is very common for theists to attack and insult atheists and vice versa. I tend to be open minded towards views I don't hold and understanding of why someone would believe in them. One my my goals is to promote peace and understanding among those who disagree with each other, and that was partly my motive for initiating this debate. I hold that whether or not socialism is better than capitalism is debatable and has everything to do with morality of those in government. That is a good lead into the actual debate. Opening Arguments Pro maintains that capitalism is inherently exploitative. If this is the case, then it is impossible to have capitalism without exploitation. For the purposes of this debate, then, all that must be proven to show Pro wrong is that it is theoretically possible to have a capitalist economic system without exploitation. To that effect, I argue that exploitation is a moral choice, and that moral choices are dictated by individuals regardless of economic systems. I'm fairly certain that Pro would agree that exploitation can happen in any economic system, including socialism. If Pro takes argument to that, I will address it in future rounds by means of examples. I say this to support my claim that exploitation has more to do with morality than economic systems, not to directly support the claim that capitalism is not inherently exploitative. Before we go any further, I should say more about what exploitation is and is not. Some may argue that everyone should receive the same wage, regardless of occupation. However, some occupations are harder than others, even if they are both just as necessary to society. It can be considered unfair for someone who has a desirable job to be paid more than someone who has an undesirable job requiring a comparable skill level. There are many factors that play into capitalism. One of the leading factors is self profit. It is generally agreed that profit is driven by supply and demand. In capitalist systems that prevent monopolies, supply and demand is used to determine prices for products sold to consumers, but it is also used to determine wages paid to employees. As a side-effect, companies compete with each other for employees by means of wages and benefits. In places that have a minimum wage, companies that pay above minimum wage tend to retain their workers better than those who don't. Retaining workers decreases the costs associated with replacing workers and increases productivity because the level of experience held by the workers increases. These benefits alone had lead some companies to pay above the minimum wage [3]. As an example of what capitalism can be, in America, the democrats are pushing to end wage inequality while the republicans are pushing to end opportunity inequality [4]. Either one of these solutions could put an end to employers exploiting workers, because workers will either be paid a fair wage for their work, or have the opportunity to do so if they are willing to work for it. It is worth noting that if the republicans have their way in that fight, retaining workers could become a larger issue, giving companies a larger incentive to treat their employees better. Summary of Argument I am not so naive as to believe that the only source of exploitation is employers, however, the definition of exploitation I copied from Con's debate [1] only included it. Thus, I focused my arguments specifically on that issue. Exploitation has more to do with the moral choices made by individuals with power than with economic systems. Capitalism can provide employers with incentive to treat workers fairly instead of exploiting them, because exploited workers have worse performance and are more likely to look for a better opportunity. Disclaimer I know that source 4 is a bias republican website, but it does a good job of supporting my claim about what republicans and democrats are arguing about in American politics. To that effect, it is a good source. I am not explicitly supporting either republicans or democrats in my use of it. Politically speaking, I am personally an independent with libertarian leanings. Sources 1) http://www.debate.org... 2) http://www.debate.org... 3) http://www.forbes.com... 4) http://www.newrepublic.com...