d the wealth of the community they were able to
exercise authority and determine community policy. One result of their
decisions was the creation of titles to land and stored wealth. A second
result was the institution of property-custom and later of property-law
under which those who owned property enjoyed special privileges which
gave them still larger shares of the community wealth and income.

Wealth ownership and the exercise of authority, concentrated in one
person or family, created a basic division in the community between
those whose livelihood depended on their labor and those whose income
was determined by their ownership of property and their exercise of
authority. In the course of time this development divided the community
into a property-owning, governing minority which was wealthy, and a
property-poor majority whose livelihood depended upon the willingness of
the property holding minority to use their land and productive
implements in operations that turned out goods and services.

Property ownership and income were protected by law. Labor income
depended on the bargaining power of the property-less majority. Property
income yielded wealth to the property owners. Labor income, under the
pressure of competition in the labor market, yielded only subsistence.
Thus the community was divided into owners and workers. The owners
controlled and spent or invested the income. The workers were provided
with the necessaries and a few crumbs of comfort.

Private property and property law supported by state power
institutionalized a basic division in every civilization. One segment of
a civilized community enjoyed wealth and power; other segments produced
goods and performed services. The owners were rich; the producers were
poor. Riches side by side with poverty are characteristic features of a
civilized society.

Exploitation has been the economic backbone of every civilization from
earliest times to the present day. Each civilization has exploited and
used up its natural resources. In every civilization individuals,
groups, classes and sometimes castes have exploited or used up fellow
humans and fellow creatures to suit their own purposes and advance their
own interests.

Abraham Lincoln gave a classical definition of human exploitation in a
simple sentence: "It is the principal that says you work and toil and
earn bread and I will eat it."

Exploitation of nature and of fellow beings by man began long before