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54-529: The North Rupununi is situated on the Guiana Shield , precambrian rock with a complex geology that includes plutonic , volcanic , metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and various rifting, uplifting, sedimentation and erosion events. The geology of the North Rupununi is critical because it fundamentally defines the topography , soils, hydrology and ultimately the economy of the area. The North Rupununi

108-441: A consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the market price is called " consumer surplus ". It is easy to see situations where the actual value is considerably larger than the market price: purchase of drinking water is one example. The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since

162-470: A monetary theory of value , where "Money is the necessary form of appearance of value (and of capital) in the sense that prices constitute the only form of appearance of the value of commodities." Similarly to the exchange theory, this theory emphasizes value as being socially determined, rather than having a physical substance. According to this analysis, when money incorporates production into its M-C-M' circulation, it functions as capital implementing

216-616: A Ramsar Wetland, thus becoming a protected area of international importance in accordance to the Ramsar Convention . According to recent researches, although ecosystems of the Guayana Highlands remain vibrant, emerging issues (including "a well-known invasive plant elsewhere" Poa annua and "one of the most aggressive weeds" Polypogon elongatus ) and infectious faecal bacteria Helicobacter pylori have been documented. Economic value In economics , economic value

270-450: A commodity's "innate worth" was the amount of labor needed to produce it. "The value of a thing in any given time and place", according to Henry George , "is the largest amount of exertion that anyone will render in exchange for it. But as men always seek to gratify their desires with the least exertion this is the lowest amount for which a similar thing can otherwise be obtained." In another classical tradition, Marx distinguished between

324-546: A commodity. However, this theory is rejected in Smith's work The Wealth of Nations . The famous diamond–water paradox questions this by examining the use in comparison to price of these goods. Water, while necessary for life, is far less expensive than diamonds, which have basically no use. Which value theory holds true divides economic thinkers, and is the base for many socioeconomic and political beliefs. Silvio Gesell denied value theory in economics. He thought that value theory

378-448: A currency administration guided by value theory is doomed to sterility and inactivity. The theory of value is closely related to that of allocative efficiency , the quality by which firms produce those goods and services most valued by society. The market value of a machine part, for example, will depend upon a variety of objective facts involving its efficiency versus the efficiency of other types of part or other types of machine to make

432-435: A good or service?” Value for money is often expressed in comparative terms, such as "better", or "best value for money", but may also be expressed in absolute terms, such as where a deal does, or does not, offer value for money. Among the competing schools of economic theory there are differing theories of value . Economic value is not the same as market price , nor is economic value the same thing as market value . If

486-540: A longer product development and marketing history than the North Rupununi. Although the impacts of the communities on biodiversity have been relatively low, there are several growing threats to biodiversity and to the integrity of the area. Notably the construction of the cross border Takutu River Bridge to Brazil, improvement of the Lethem-Georgetown Road which runs near the Kanuku Mountains and through

540-505: A major local food source in the North Rupununi. Mammals and fish in particular provides the majority of the protein intake for villagers (Watkins et al., 1999). According to a study by the Makushi Research Unit (Forte, 1996) over 100 species of fish are eaten by Makushi. As such, fishing is an extremely important subsistence activity. Officially, Guyana is home to 9 Amerindian tribes, although some tribal designations refer to

594-471: A mathematical quantity depends on the algebraic sign attached to it. Any given accumulation of commercial wealth may be indicative, on the one hand, of faithful industries, progressive energies, and productive ingenuities: or, on the other, it may be indicative of mortal luxury, merciless tyranny, ruinous chicanery." Gandhi was greatly inspired by Ruskin's book and published a paraphrase of it in 1908. Economists such as Ludwig von Mises asserted that "value"

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648-527: A primary place of recreation for local residents. Although these communities have legal title to some of their traditional lands, all of the communities currently practice customary user rights to their surrounding land and resources. The North Rupununi may have a historical comparative advantage in conservation and tourism development. The main competitor for an area like this is the Pantanal in Brazil which has

702-465: Is a continuing phenomenon [Forte 1993: 6-8]. The cattle and balata latex industries were the economic mainstay of the area from the 1900s to the 1980s. Since then, tourism has grown slowly as has the interest in conserving this global treasure through the work of Conservation International , the Iwokrama Centre , WWF and other community based NGOs and governmental organizations . Recently,

756-415: Is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent , and value for money represents an assessment of whether financial or other resources are being used effectively in order to secure such benefit. Economic value is generally measured through units of currency , and the interpretation is therefore "what is the maximum amount of money a person is willing and able to pay for

810-467: Is a need for a power theory of value. There is, however, a causality dilemma to their argument that has drawn criticism: power is based on the ability of firms to set monopoly prices yet the ability to set prices is based on firms possessing a degree of power in the market. Capitalization , in their theory, is a measure of power, as illuminated through the present discounted value of future earnings (while also taking into account hype and risk). This formula

864-452: Is a subjective judgment. Prices can only be determined by taking these subjective judgments into account, and that this is done through the price mechanism in the market. Thus, it was false to say that the economic value of a good was equal to what it cost to produce or to its current replacement cost. Silvio Gesell denied value theory in economics. He thought that value theory is useless and prevents economics from becoming science and that

918-426: Is basic to finance which is the overarching logic of capitalism. The logic is also inherently differential as every capitalist strives to accumulate greater earnings than their competitors (but not profit maximization ). Nitzan and Bichler label this process differential accumulation . In order to have a power theory of value there needs to be differential accumulation where some owners' rate of growth of capitalization

972-460: Is being remedied with a greater focus on consultation with Amerindians in current development programmes [e.g. Bishop 1996], the problem of ensuring their full participation in and benefit from the changes that are taking place in Guyana remains. The need for this is compelling - though no comprehensive economic surveys have been performed, conventional economic indicators suggest that Amerindian poverty

1026-486: Is equally rich and 13,367 species of vascular plants have been found, approximately 40% of which is considered endemic. The shield is overlain by the largest expanse of tropical forest on any Precambrian shield area in the world. Guianan rain forest is similar in nature to Amazonian rain forest and known protected areas include the Iwokrama Forest of central Guyana, Kaieteur, Kanuku National Park of southern Guyana,

1080-599: Is faster than the average pace of capitalization. The subjective theory of value emphasizes the role of consumer preferences in influencing price. According to this theory, the consumer places a value on a commodity by determining the marginal utility , or additional satisfaction of one additional unit. Marginalism employs concepts such as marginal utility , marginal rate of substitution , and opportunity costs to explain consumer preferences and price. Subjectivist or marginalist theories of value were created by William Stanley Jevons , Léon Walras , and Carl Menger in

1134-447: Is necessary for life. This paradox was answered by the subjective theory of value by realizing that water, in total, is more valuable than diamonds because the first few units are necessary for life. The key difference between water and diamonds is that water is more plentiful and diamonds are rare. Because of the availability, one additional unit of diamonds exceeds the value of one additional unit of water. The subjective theory emphasizes

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1188-846: Is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate . It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands , which is where the table-like mountains called tepuis are found. The Guiana Highlands are also the source of some of the world's most well-known waterfalls such as Angel Falls , Kaieteur Falls and Cuquenan Falls . The Guiana Shield underlies Guyana (previously British Guiana ), Suriname (previously Dutch Guiana ), and French Guiana (or Guyane ), much of southern Venezuela , as well as parts of Colombia and Brazil . The rocks of

1242-472: Is part of a Mesozoic graben , the Takutu Basin. The basin is 280 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide, is over 7 kilometers deep, and covers more than 11,200 square kilometers in Guyana and Brazil. The 2001 population data indicates that approximately 9000 people live within the 8000km2 in the north Rupununi in twenty seven different villages. The North Rupununi Wetland catchment is the traditional home of

1296-696: Is the highest summit of the larger Neblina massif , a highly eroded sandstone plateau that straddles the Venezuela-Brazil border and that has lost the typical tabletop shape of the other tepuis in the region. The Guiana Shield is one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world, and has many endemic species. The region houses over 3000 vertebrate species: 1168 fresh water fish, 269 amphibians (54% endemics), 295 reptiles (29%), 1004 birds (7.7%), and 282 mammals (11%). Diversity of invertebrates remains largely undocumented, but there are several species of endemic butterflies and dung beetles. Plant life

1350-458: Is useless and prevents economics from becoming science and that a currency administration guided by value theory is doomed to sterility and inactivity. In classical economics , the labor theory of value asserts that the economic value of a commodity is determined by the total amount of socially necessary labor required to produce it. When speaking in terms of a labor theory of value, value without any qualifying adjective theoretically refers to

1404-404: Is worth relative to other objects or conditions. Economic values are expressed as "how much" of one desirable condition or product will, or would be given up in exchange for some other desired condition or product. Among the competing schools of economic theory there are differing metrics for value assessment and the metrics are the subject of a theory of value . Value theories are a large part of

1458-427: The buyer and seller. Just as the buyer reveals what he is willing to pay for a certain amount of a good, so too does the seller reveal what it costs him to give up the good. Additional information about market value is obtained by the rate at which transactions occur, telling observers the extent to which the purchase of the good has value over time. Said another way, value is how much a desired object or condition

1512-413: The capitalist relation and the exploitation of labor power constitutes the actual presupposition for this incorporation. Radical institutional economists Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler (2009) argue that it was never possible to separate economics from politics. This separation is required to allow for neoclassical economics to base their theory on utility value and for Marxists to base

1566-454: The labour theory of value on quantified abstract labour . Instead of a utility theory of value (like neoclassical economics ) or a labour theory of value (as found in Marxian economics ), Nitzan and Bichler propose a power theory of value . The structure of prices has little to do with the so-called "material" sphere of production and consumption. The quantification of power in prices is not

1620-474: The "form of appearance" (This interpretation of Marx is along the lines of the Marxist thinker Michael Heinrich ) [ Erscheinungsform ] of value, in his critique of political economy which implies that, although value is separate from exchange value, it is meaningless without the act of exchange. In this tradition, Steve Keen makes the claim that "value" refers to "the innate worth of a commodity, which determines

1674-421: The "value in use" ( use-value , what a commodity provides to its buyer), labor cost which he calls "value" (the socially-necessary labour time it embodies), and " exchange value " (how much labor-time the sale of the commodity can claim, Smith's "labor commanded" value). By most interpretations of his labor theory of value , Marx, like Ricardo, developed a "labor theory of price" where the point of analyzing value

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1728-585: The Government has entertained the idea of large scale agricultural initiatives and small scale industrial development in Lethem . The establishment and strengthening of the Georgetown -Lethem road is designed to support increased access to the area. Aside from subsistence and economic value , the North Rupununi also feature prominently indigenous culture and folklore , and have significant aesthetic value , serving as

1782-461: The Guiana Shield consist of metasediments and metavolcanics ( greenstones ) overlain by sub-horizontal layers of sandstones , quartzites , shales and conglomerates intruded by sills of younger mafic intrusives such as gabbros . The oldest rocks in the shield consist of Archean Imataca Complex, composed of a quartz - feldspar gneiss and subordinate mafic gneiss. The Guri Fault marks

1836-572: The Guiana Shield: The north-central part of the Guiana Highlands is dominated by high flat-topped peaks called tepuis , of the Roraima supergroup and Quasi-Roraima formation, and the rounded granite peaks of the Parguaza and Imataca complexes to the north and southwestern edges of the area. The highest point in the shield is Pico da Neblina in Brazil at 2,995 metres (9,826 ft). Pico da Neblina

1890-488: The Makushi people. Although the Makushi are still the primary ethnic group in the area, many communities contain a mixture of other indigenous groups and immigrants from the more populated coast. That said, North Rupununi is inhabited mostly by Amerindian peoples, 81% Makushi and 12.6% Wapishana in 2007. Hunting, fishing, and farming livelihoods are being increasingly threatened by mining and road development. Wildlife represents

1944-619: The Rupununi savannahs, allowing increased access to natural resources, increased population growth in Lethem, the nearest town to the Kanukus, fire, over-harvesting of wildlife for sale to Brazil, and illegal wildlife trade. Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield ( French : Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais ; Dutch : Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild ; Portuguese : Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas ; Spanish : Escudo guayanés )

1998-746: The UNESCO World Heritage Site Central Suriname Nature Reserve of Suriname , the Guiana Amazonian Park in French Guiana and the Tumucumaque National Park in the Amapá State of Brazil . In Venezuela the forests are protected by Canaima , Parima-Tapirapeco and Serranía de la Neblina national parks. In 2014, the Government of Colombia designated a 250 hectare area of the Guiana Shield, as

2052-483: The aggregate, not a specific price of a particular good or service in a given circumstance. Theories in either class allow for deviations when a particular price is struck in a real-world market transaction, or when a price is set in some price fixing regime. Critics of traditional Marxian economics , especially those associated with the Neue Marx-Lektüre (New Readings of Marx) such as Michael Heinrich , emphasize

2106-421: The amount of labor necessary for the production of a marketable commodity , including the labor necessary for the development of any capital used in the production process. Both David Ricardo and Karl Marx attempted to quantify and embody all labor components in order to develop a theory of the real, or natural, price of a commodity. In either case, what is being addressed are general prices—i.e., prices in

2160-411: The beginning of the discipline. First, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods that can be exchanged. From this analysis came the concepts value in use and value in exchange . Value is linked to price through the mechanism of exchange . When an economist observes an exchange, two important value functions are revealed: those of

2214-443: The consequence of external laws—whether natural or historical—but entirely internal to society. In capitalism , power is the governing principle as rooted in the centrality of private ownership. Private ownership is wholly and only an act of institutionalized exclusion, and institutionalized exclusion is a matter of organized power. And since the power behind private ownership is denominated in prices, Nitzan and Bichler argue, there

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2268-405: The country's total population [Forte 1990a]. However, the concentration of the majority of the non-indigenous population on the coast means that Amerindians form a demographic majority in many parts of the interior. Despite this, industrial development in the interior has tended to by-pass Amerindian populations, and rarely been designed to cater for their needs [La Rose 1994]. Though this situation

2322-685: The descendants of several, formerly linguistically distinct, groups–notably the Wai-wai and Wapishana . The majority are of the Carib linguistic branch - true Caribs , Akawaio , Patamona , Arecuna , Makushi and Wai-wai - coastal Arawak (more accurately termed Lokono ) and Wapishana speak Arawakan languages , and the Warrau are Guyana's sole representatives of the Warrau branch. The most recent census showed Amerindian people to number around 47,000 in Guyana, around 8% of

2376-426: The differences and disagreements between the various schools of economic theory. Value for money forms part of the "economic dimension" of the five "cases" required to validate a UK government investment or spending proposal. UK government guidance in this context speaks of "assessing" and of "maximising" value for money. In neoclassical economics , the value of an object or service is often seen as nothing but

2430-404: The economic concept of value from a moral point of view. He entitled the volume Unto This Last , and his central point was this: "It is impossible to conclude, of any given mass of acquired wealth, merely by the fact of its existence, whether it signifies good or evil to the nation in the midst of which it exists. Its real value depends on the moral sign attached to it, just as strictly as that of

2484-418: The kind of products that consumers will value in turn. In such a case, market value has both objective and subjective components. Economy, efficiency and effectiveness , often referred to as the "Three Es", may be used as complementary factors contributing to an assessment of the value for money provided by a purchase, project or activity. The UK National Audit Office uses the following summaries to explain

2538-404: The late 19th century. These theories contradicted earlier labour theories of values proposed by classical economists which emphasize the role of socially necessary labour in producing value. The subjective theory of value helped answer the " diamond–water paradox ," which many believed to be unsolvable. The diamond–water paradox questions why diamonds are so much more valuable than water when water

2592-496: The meaning of each term: Sometimes a fourth 'E', equity , is also added. In philosophy, economic value is a subcategory of a more general philosophical value , as defined in goodness and value theory or in the science of value . Adam Smith agreed with certain aspects of labor theory of value , but believed it did not fully explain price and profit. Instead, he proposed a cost-of-production theory of value (to later develop into exchange value theory) that explained value

2646-406: The normal ('equilibrium') ratio at which two commodities exchange." To Keen and the tradition of David Ricardo , this corresponds to the classical concept of long-run cost-determined prices, what Adam Smith called "natural prices" and Marx called " prices of production ". It is part of a cost-of-production theory of value and price. Ricardo, but not Keen, used a " labor theory of price " in which

2700-447: The price it would bring in an open and competitive market. This is determined primarily by the demand for the object relative to supply in a perfectly competitive market . Many neoclassical economic theories equate the value of a commodity with its price, whether the market is competitive or not. As such, everything is seen as a commodity and if there is no market to set a price then there is no economic value. In classical economics ,

2754-533: The southern boundary of the complex. South of that fault are Early Proterozoic rocks consisting of the metavolcanic Pastora Supergroup and the granitic plutonic Supamo Complex. The Cuchivero Group consists of ash flow tuff and granitic plutonic rocks. The Early to Middle Proterozoic Roraima Group consists of continental clastic sedimentary rocks. These Precambrian sediments include quartz sandstones , quartzites , and conglomerates presumed to be 1.8 to 1.4 Ga in age. There are three upland areas of

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2808-463: The value of an object or condition is the amount of discomfort/labor saved through the consumption or use of an object or condition (Labor Theory of Value) . Though exchange value is recognized, economic value is not, in theory, dependent on the existence of a market and price and value are not seen as equal. This is complicated, however, by the efforts of classical economists to connect price and labor value. Karl Marx , for one, saw exchange value as

2862-411: Was determined by several different factors, including wages and rents. This theory of value, according to Smith, best explained the natural prices in the market. While an underdeveloped theory at the time, it did offer an alternative to another popular value theory of the time. The utility theory of value was the belief that price and value were solely based on how much "use" an individual received from

2916-400: Was to allow the calculation of relative prices . Others see values as part of his sociopolitical interpretation and critique of capitalism and other societies, and deny that it was intended to serve as a category of economics. According to a third interpretation, Marx aimed for a theory of the dynamics of price formation but did not complete it. In 1860, John Ruskin published a critique of

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