Of all the textbooks sold at the LSU Bookstore, Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” is probably the most controversial.It’s hard to calculate the number of souls communism has snuffed out of existence. Estimates for Joseph’s Stalin’s regime range between 3.5 to 60 million, and estimates of the deathcount of Mao Zedong’s brutal rule vary from 19.5 to as high as 75 million, according to The Black Book of Communism.Despite these immeasurable tragedies, Marx is still given far more respect than he deserves.Marx’s economic theory — and hence his moral judgments, utopian vision, depressing psychology and unrealized predictions — are largely based on a concept called “surplus value.”Because employers pay employees less than the value they contribute, Marx argued laborers are systematically exploited by the capitalist system.The silliness of this position can be seen in your daily life.Imagine a cashier at Raising Cane’s making $7 an hour. For the sake of argument, assume he allows an additional $10 of chicken and toast to be sold every hour. In Marx’s view the $3 an hour “surplus value” the cashier provides for Raising Cane’s is extracted from him by exploitation.When looking at any social situation, it is imperative to separate the voluntary from the coercive.No one forced the cashier to give part of his value to Cane’s. He chose to work there.And this isn’t just rhetoric. In a very real way, the Cane’s fry cook could quit his job, take out a loan from the bank, buy out the Blockbuster Video across the street and set up his own chicken shop where he could work without surrendering any value.But his additional value would come with tremendous costs. Our young entrepreneur would lose any benefits from specialization as he switched from working one aspect of the fast food industry to every job. He would have to reinvent his own recipes and his own special sauce to compete with the reputation found across the street.Standing on his own two feet, he would no longer be protected from potential lawsuits, and his income would unpredictably vary with the success of his industry instead of staying at a stable $7 an hour.For some innovators, the risks of starting a business are worth the potential payoff, and society benefits from their creativity.But for most, the challenges involved in starting a business make giving a pre-existing firm your surplus value a worthwhile trade.The source of the surplus value Marx railed against is not exploitation but the freedom to choose. Employees choose to surrender their surplus value for the benefits a company provides.And the existence of this choice increases the wages of employees. Because of a “selfish” desire to better their own circumstances, workers will constantly drift toward companies providing the best-paying jobs.Ironically, Marx’s prescription to the problem involves an increase of state power and a decrease in freedom.The “Communist Manifesto” includes 10 planks to connect capitalist countries to communism. These steps include an increase in income taxes, abolition of private property, a national bank and other decreases of individual freedom.That his philosophy has resulted in an increase in exploitation should not be surprising.To be sure, exploitation can exist in the labor market without the presence of the state. People have a tendency to abuse power, and abuses of power can be found outside  governments.But within the nasal cavities of government, these infections fester and expand.To better the lot of the masses, we must increase their freedom and subject Marx’s theories to the derisive laughter they deserve.Daniel Morgan is a 21-year-old economics major from Baton Rouge.–Contact Daniel Morgan at [email protected]