The Hoppean Reply to the Accusation of Capitalist Exploitation of Labor

Hoppe Explains Why the Relationship between Labor and Capital is Harmonious, not Antagonistic

What is wrong with Marx's theory of exploitation, then, is that he does not understand the phenomenon of time preference as a universal category of human action.  That the laborer does not receive his "full worth" has nothing to do with exploitation but merely reflects the fact that it is impossible for man to exchange future goods against present ones except at a discount.  Contrary to the case of slave and slave master where the latter benefits at the expense of the former, the relationship between the free laborer and the capitalist is a mutually beneficial one.  The laborer enters the agreement because, given his time preference, he prefers a smaller amount of present goods over a larger future one; and the capitalist enters it because, given his time preference, he has a reverse preference order and ranks a larger future amount of goods more highly than a smaller present one.  Their interests are not antagonistic but harmonious.

--Hans-Hermann Hoppe, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property, 122