A Refutation of the Commodity Exploitation Theorem

Abstract

This note is to show that the generalized commodity exploitation theorem put forward by Bowles and Gintis and Roemer is nothing but an alternative form of the Hawkins-Simon condition for given technical data, and that it has nothing to do with exploitation. That is, the Hawkins-Simon condition means a mere possibility of an economic system to produce a surplus in each commodity, and as such does not guarantee the existence of positive profits. To consider exploitation or the existence of positive profits, we need to introduce prices at which unequal exchanges may be carried out. Copyright © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.