Exploração: o conceito mal entendido (Economia para sindicalistas - I)

Em inglês é fácil: "exploitation" vs "exploration". Em português, infelizmente, usamos apenas uma palavra: "exploração". Mas, o que, economicamente, entende-se por exploração? Aí vai a explicação mais clara que eu já li.

"It is often said that some participants in the economy 'exploit' others--most commonly that employers exploit workers. This raises the question of what it means to exploit someone. Two different definitions are often used--simultaneously--in such discussions. The first is that I exploit you if I benefit by your existence. In this sense, I hope to exploit my wife and she hopes to exploit me; so far we have both succeeded. If that is what exploitation means, then it is the reason that humans are social animals and not, like cats, solitary ones.

The second definition 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 the only way one person can gain is at another person's expense, or by arguing that if I gain by our association you deserve to have the gain given to you, so my refusal to give it to you injures you. The former argument is implausible. The second has a curious asymmetry to it. If I give you all the gain, you have now gained by our association and should obviously give it all back to me. It may be more sensible to keep the term exploitation out of economics and reserve it for political invective."