Yes, survival is the key area in all of this that must urgently be better felt into and understood.
Growing up I realised early on that the more I know how to survive, the more I can help others to survive and the less of a threat they become to me. This is the opposite of the view that I have to exploit others to survive. I learned from my Father that he treated others as they treated him - which made sense until I realised that if anything is going to improve I am actually required to treat people better than they treat me. If everyone treats each other the same then nothing can improve.

There has clearly been much exploitation and there is much imbalance as a result. We need to understand the equations involved in order to correct this. As complex as it can become, there remains a fundamental truth - you can't get less of something by adding more of it. We cannot reduce exploitation through exploiting others. So we need to find ways to survive that do not involve exploitation and they certainly exist. In fact, they are abundant - but they cannot be understood from a fear/lack based set of beliefs. Thankfully it is completely free to change our beliefs!