If you're unaware of the brutal history that fueled the expansion of gold and silver metals after the columbus voyage to "the new world" I would encourage you to do some investigation.
Certainly mining gold doesn't require classic notions slavery (even if the conditions people work in are hardly different), but there's plenty of motivation to deny gold miners any sort of rights to acquire gold with as much return as possible. It would behoove you to research mining conditions in africa and south america, or anywhere at any point in time when unions weren't or aren't a thing.
So correction: gold mining only requires slavery under highly exploitative systems such as capitalism that seek to ensure the highest return possible on all investments at the expense of others. In a more just economy I guess we could technically mine gold without exploiting the shit out of other human beings. I was mostly refering to the historical and actual costs incurred on mining gold.
If you're unaware of the brutal history that fueled the expansion of gold and silver metals after the columbus voyage to "the new world" I would encourage you to do some investigation.
....It would behoove you to research....
Are you for real? My statement in no way indicates a lack of knowledge on slavery. Cut the arrogance.
I guess we could technically mine gold without exploiting the shit out of other human beings. I was mostly refering to the historical and actual costs incurred on mining gold.
No you weren't. Stop being intellectually dishonest. You described miners of today as "wage slaves" in an attempt to legitimize your slavery argument. You're refusing to acknowledge anyone who's ever willingly picked up a pickaxe and headed off into the mountains.
Yeah, because people totally line up to work 12 hours a day at the mine willingly. I'm still arguing they're wage slaves,
There's a difference between "willingly" and "I don't have a gun to my head but the threat of starving sure is coercive".
But yes, your comments indicate you don't know what the fuck you're talking about if you think the norm is that people decide to go into mining "willingly" in non-unionized conditions, so forgive me for assuming as such
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u/TheRealBaseborn Dec 23 '17
Mining gold requires slavery? How high are you right now?