| This question <55|51> overall <49|51> Stonewall: <16|13>. |
| Question 81: How is the value of raw materials determined in Marx's theory? How does the scarcity of these materials influence their value? Is Marx's argument still valid in the case of an exhaustible resource, which is present only in finite supply? |
| [50] Stonewall: Value of Materials. The value of raw materials, such as described by Marx, is determined by labor-time. He gives a few examples in the book, one is an example of mining diamonds in Brazil. The mine operated for 80 years extracting diamonds, but during that 80 years the mine did not yield as much product as 1 and a half years of sugar and coffee in Brazil. Diamonds and many other rare exotic materials take time to excavate and process to make them saleable. It is labor intensive to locate the diamonds, it takes more time to cut the diamons so they are smooth all the way around and no blemishes in them, and they must be polished. For just one diamond it takes a considerable amount of time to get it to the selling block, whereas corn or other produce you can plant it relatively easy, water the plants without any manpower, harvest them and get them ready for sale with very little labor and in a short space of time. |
| To answer Marx's last question, I would say no and use oil as an example of why I said no. As everyone knows the oil in the earth is limited to only a certain quantity. We will one day run out of it. But as of yet I do not believe that this is driving the prices of oil up. When I first read the question I thought yes this does apply to the exhaustible resources, that's why gas is so pricey, in a nut shell. But the more I thought about it, I realized the answer was NO. Labor-time in producing oil is probably at its lowest cost in the history of the world, in terms of today's value. It's harvested, processed and ready to be used relatively fast. What is driving up the price is the quantity that OPEC is producing. I do not believe that labor-time has any effect on the price of oil. |
| Hans: You must formulate your submissions much more carefully. I had to edit the archive version quite a bit in order to eliminate spelling errors etc. |
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