Exploitation, Extortion and Oppression

Exploitation, extortion and oppression describe unjust social arrangements that ought to be changed. The concept of exploitation is particularly associated with Marx's critique of capitalism, and the term 'extortion' sometimes designates the injustice of feudalism. The distinctions between these concepts can be clarified using the framework of rational-choice theory. Oppression is a situation of unfair exclusion (from resources, or utilities more generally). Exploitation is the unfair use by one person of the excluded situation of another. Extortion involves the deliberate creation of an exploiting situation. The relation of these phenomena to coercion is a logical one only in the case of extortion: coercion being necessary to extortion.