Editing Peter Kropotkin (section)

=== Critique of capitalism ===
Kropotkin critiqued what he considered to be the fallacies of the [[Economics#Criticism|economic systems]] of [[feudalism]] and [[Criticism of capitalism|capitalism]]. He believed they create poverty and [[artificial scarcity]] and promote [[social privilege|privilege]]. Alternatively, he proposed a more decentralized economic system based on [[mutual aid]] and [[cooperation|voluntary cooperation]]. He argued that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kropotkin |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/mutualaidafacto00knigoog |title=Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution |publisher=McClure, Philips & Company |year=1902 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mutualaidafacto00knigoog/page/n247 223]}}</ref>

Kropotkin disagreed in part with the Marxist critique of capitalism, including the [[labor theory of value]], believing there was no necessary link between work performed and the values of commodities. His attack on the institution of wage labor was based more on the power employers exerted over employees, and not only on the extraction of [[surplus value]] from their labor. Kropotkin claimed this power was made possible by the state's protection of private ownership of productive resources.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bekken |first=John |title=Radical Economics and Labour |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-415-77723-0 |location=London & New York |page=223 |chapter=Peter Kropotkin's anarchist economics for a new society |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3PoqAJrrYtAC&pg=PT18}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kropotkin |first=Peter |title=The Conquest of Bread |publisher=Dover Publications, Inc. |year=2011 |pages=50, 101–102}}</ref> However, Kropotkin believed the possibility of surplus value was itself the problem, holding that a society would still be unjust if the workers of a particular industry kept their surplus to themselves, rather than redistributing it for the common good.<ref name=":0" />