<html> <body> Michael Albert: Please forgive my laziness, but I'm trying to map parecon onto what I already know (or think I know) and then decide how much I want to look into it... so for now I just have one question.  For me (and, I think, Marx) an exploitive class structure is one in which the direct producers (workers) do not appropriate and decide how to distribute the surplus that they produce.  I assume that parecon is supposed to be a non-exploitive class system/society.  By my definition, such a society is one in which the workers collectively appropriate and decide what to do with the surplus.  Is parecon, as you have developed it, consistent with my definition of a non-exploitive class structure?  If so, where, and how? Thanks much for taking the time to field these questions. Cliff   </body> </html>