Saying employers "exploit" employees is asinine

[imported_I, fuzzbot.]

Two different definitions of exploitation are implicit, simultaneously, in such discussions...

1) The first is that i exploit you if i benefit from your existence

in the sense, i hope to exploit my signifigant other, and she hopes to exploit me (as with any relationship...the same goes for friendship)

We both hope to benefit by the others relationship to us...otherwise, we wouldn't be in the relationship as there would be nothing to gain by being so.... if that is the definiton of exploitation we are using, then that is why humans are social animals and not solitary ones (like cats)....

Let's say we own a house and rent out a room to some individuals who are enthusiastic gardeners. and we are not. we get free gardening, they get free use of a yard to garden in.. who is exploiting who?

2) The second definiton is that i exploit you if i gain and you lose by our association.

The connection between the two can be made either by claiming that the world is a zero-sum game in which one person can only gain at anothers expense, or by arguing that if i gain by our association you deserve to have the gain given to you, so my refusal to do so injures you....

The first argument is implausible. the second has a very curious asymmetry... if i give you all the gain, you have now gained by our association and should give it all back. and this would continue on and on from one back to another....

One can see that employees definately gain by working for an employer. they leverage their labor for money, trading leisure for monetary gain.

By deciding to work for a given wage, the employee is literally making the decision that this time/labor he trades is equal to the payment he receives....otherwise, he would trade his time/labor elsewhere...