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The concept of surplus labour – that is labour performed over and above that required to fulfil immediate consumption needs – will be used to explain: first, how economic development happens; second, why the current capitalist system, as a result of the appropriation of surplus labour, is both unethical and inefficient economically; and third, why a market system based on various forms of common ownership – which is identified as the underlying economic basis for socialism – is not only more efficient economically, but also more ethical because it is able to eliminate the appropriation of surplus labour.
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