On Roemer's Theory Of Exploitation

As one of the representatives of the Analytical Marxism,Roemer faces the Marxist crisis of the time,responds to the challenge from theoretical and practical aspects and constructs a unique theory of exploitation.And he also has been controversial because of his new approach to reinterpret Marx's theory of exploitation.Unlike Marx,Roemer first begins his technical analysis of exploitation by getting rid of moral factors and constructs general,universally applicable theory of exploitation through property relations.And then he pluses the moral evaluation factors,by comparing the feudal system and the capitalist system,and launches a direct moral attack to the latter.The purpose of Roemer is to create a general theory of exploitation,so he combines exploitation with different forms of society to construct a form of exploitation with specific times.In Roemer's view,at different stage,exploitation does not need to be eliminated quickly,and its existence also has social necessity.Only when the development of economic level can break through the limitation of exploitation,exploitation must be eliminated immediately.Roemer did not point out how to completely eliminate the exploitation,but to explore several possible forms,and this has pointed out the direction for our exploration.Roemer's theory has a certain critical value to the capitalist system,and its social necessary exploitation theory also has an explanatory effect on the current social phenomenon.But because Roemer only uses the individualist methodological principle,its hypothetical object is also limited to the virtual economic man,leading to the lack of macro vision,failing to grasp the capitalist society's production law.At the same time Roemer focuses on the field of exchange and ignores production process and labor market,lacking theory attention to the real man who is under exploitation in capitalist production process,thus he fails to see man's alienation,and the criticism of capitalism can only be on the surface.Besides,his theoretical foothold only within the capitalist system,failed to stand on a higher level,and thus it's difficult to grasp the essence of human society,ultimately it can't really eliminate the exploitation.