Unequal Exchange Quotes

“Das ist Lateinamerika, die Re­
gion der offenen Adern. Von seiner Entdeckung
bis in die heutige Zeit wurde alles stets in euro­
päisches oder später in nordamerikanisches Ka­
pital verwandelt und als solches wurde und wird
es in den fernen Zentren der Macht angehäuft.
Alles: das Land, seine Früchte und seine Boden­
schätze, die Menschen und ihre Arbeits- und Kon­
sumkraft.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Die offenen Adern Lateinamerikas: Neuausgabe by Eduardo Galeano

“If, by some miracle, a socialist and fraternal system, regardless of its type or model, were introduced tomorrow morning the world over, and if it wanted to integrate, to homogenize mankind by equalizing living standards, then to do this it would not only have to expropriate the capitalists of the entire world, but also dispossess large sections of the working class of the industrialized countries, of the amount of surplus value these sections appropriate today. It seems this is reason enough for these working classes not to desire this ‘socialist and fraternal’ system and to express their opposition by either openly integrating into the existing system, as in the United States of America or the Federal Republic of Germany, or by advocating national paths to socialism, as in France or Italy.”
― Arghiri Emmanuel