It’s ultimately not the owners of gold mines nor the captains of industry who determine how gold will be used in a market economy. Instead, these decisions are largely guided by the spending decisions of the consumers.
It appears to me that this is a contradiction to Say’s Law. Then again, I have actually not read about Say’s Law and really hope to do so to be able to discuss recessions caused by “drop in demand” with my friends.
The key word in that sentence is ‘ultimately’. Obviously the entrepreneurs decide what products they will put up for sale, but as you know in order to make a profit they have satisfy the consumer in competition with other firms. I think you’re taking the sentence too literally, as if the entrepreneurs have no decision-making.
It has nothing to do with says law. I don’t know much about the law myself, but I know the basic idea is that it is not a defficiency in demand which brings about recessions but rather a misallocation of supply. Therefore the use of gold in society has nothing to do with Say’s law, they are merely referring to the fact of the consumer’s democracy, which is the tendancy for resources to be allocated to the areas that people value them in an attempt to seek profit.