Efficiency and exploitation are not mutually exclusive. Efficiency is usually defined as "maximizing output while minimizing input". Exploitation is about how

Efficiency and exploitation are not mutually exclusive. Efficiency is usually defined as "maximizing output while minimizing input". Exploitation is about how equal the deal is, whether the returns will be spread evenly across all people who contributed vs. concentrated in one person. There are a great many situations where the most efficient way to produce something is to have one person tell lots of people exactly what they should be doing and then work them as hard as possible while giving them the minimum needed to induce them to take the job. The whole profession of management and theory of a firm is based on this idea. Many people would agree that efficiency is good while exploitation is bad, but we shouldn't let our feelings toward each idea cloud our understanding of the relationship between them. It's very possible for a concrete situation to be both good and bad at the same time, depending on which part of it we look at.