From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Wed Sep 04 2002 - 22:50:16 EDT
Fred: I haven't had a chance to read all of the exchanges on this thread, but I have a comment about the alleged governing role played by the composition of capital of the least productive gold-producers for the gold exchange rate. My comment is that a significant percentage of gold production in the world today is in, what the ILO classifies in the following link as, small-scale mining. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/techmeet/tmssm99/tmssmr.htm Many of these gold-producers are self-employed in the 'petty-commodity' producing sector of the economy, often referred to as the 'informal sector'. These gold-miners are typically landless, very poor, and suffer from occupational diseases (such as, especially in Latin America, mercury poisoning.) Clearly, if one were to identify the gold-mining operations that are the least efficient and have the lowest productivity of labor, then these small scale mining activities would be a good candidate. Indeed, the sum total of means of production that these miners might work with is a metal pan and sifter. So -- as an empirical matter -- your contention seems to me to be problematic. Of course, one could *assume* that all gold is produced capitalistically, but what happens then when we drop that assumption? What determines the exchange rate for gold then? It is also worth noting that small scale gold mining has increased dramatically since the so-called "gold rush" that began in the l980s in Latin America. In Mexico, for instance, there have been dramatic increases in gold production (in l987, l0,l94 metric tons of gold was produced; in l997, the amount was 24,488; and the projected figure for 200l was 4l, 375.) This increase in gold production, it seems, though has more to do with the size of the industrial reserve army and mass poverty in rural areas in Mexico and elsewhere in the region than in any new discoveries of gold or new more efficient methods of gold production. How would you explain the relationship between the capitalist gold-producing branch of production and the 'informal sector' gold producers? In solidarity, Jerry
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