Latin America: Underdevelopment and Surpluses of Population

The present work discusses the origin and forms of manifestation of the surplus population in Latina America. It is argued that (a) the relations between developed and underdeveloped countries rest on an asymmetric production integration, which, in turn, results from the different production relations in both categories of countries; and (b) this integration determines a structurally unequal exchange as well as an unequal distribution of the energy to create a surplus population, concentrating it in underdeveloped countries, and (c) consequently, Latin America produces both a relative and an absolute surplus population.

The surplus population’s meaning vis-a-vis the process of accumulation, of which it is a result, is spread heterogeneously throughout its ranks. In the discussion of this population’s position with respect to capital and its manifestation forms, special attention is paid to pirate capital and home-based domestic labor.