a hand sticking out of the rubble clutching a crumpled note

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34. I agree some kind of exploitation will always exist

but institutionalized, authorized and government supported exploitation of workers (the end result of all capitalism) does not have to exist. There are other economic systems that are far less abusive to workers. We have them in America right now. The so-called "self employed" are usually NOT capitalists. There are worker directed businesses very similar to co-ops that are not exploitive. There are major computer software corporations in existence (Valve comes to mind) in the US that are worker owned and directed and are not exploitive.

I did not mean to say that those who were pushing for better treatment of slaves were also pushing for an end to slavery. That is contradictory. There were, before the civil war, people who tried to make the slaves life better. They were mostly in the South and were probably due to pressure from abolitionists. For example: "Ten Southern codes made it a crime to mistreat a slave. ... Under the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 (art. 192), if a master was “convicted of cruel treatment,” the judge could order the sale of the mistreated slave, presumably to a better master." But of course who gets to decide what mistreatment was? And the definition of mistreatment got looser and looser and loopholes and exemptions were frequent.

Also many Preachers taught white masters responsibility and the concept of appropriate paternal treatment, using Christianity to improve conditions for slaves, and to treat them "justly and fairly”. This included having self-control, not disciplining under anger, not threatening, and ultimately fostering Christianity among their slaves by example.

So there were those who thought making the slave's life better was a better way to go then to outright ban all slavery.

Regulation of capitalism is temporary and a stop gap measure. Every time you have well regulated capitalism, the rich capitalist fight night and day to turn over those regulations. They push for loopholes and take legal and illegal actions to do away with most controls. FDR had a system of well regulated capitalism but since Raygun, those regulations have for all practical purposes disappeared.

See the rich capitalist gets to exploit the worker and pays the worker a whole lot less than the value of his labor. So the rich capitalist gets richer and richer, while pushing for lower and lower wages for the workers. The rich capitalist then uses those riches to buy up the political and legal system. Workers on the other hand get poorer and poorer as the rich squeeze their wages ever smaller. The worker does not have the money to fight back. So, why leave that wealth in the hands of capitalist who are just going to use it to get more and more exploitive?

Currently most workplaces are ruled by a boss, CEO or manager. The worker does what he is told, when he is told. The worker has no vote on the work he is doing. If you bring democracy to the work place, then that worker would have to have some input or vote in the work and the outcome of the work. Most workplaces are dictatorships, I think they can all become democracies.