Means of production
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The concept of "means of production" is used by researchers in various fields of study — including politics, economics, and sociology — to discuss, broadly, the relationship between anything that can have productive use, its ownership, and the constituent social parts needed to produce it.
Industrial production
From the perspective of a firm, a
The social means of production are capital goods and assets that require organized collective labor effort, as opposed to individual effort, to operate on.[7] The ownership and organization of the social means of production is a key factor in categorizing and defining different types of economic systems.
The means of production includes two broad categories of objects:
Knowledge production
In a
Depreciation
The means of production of the firm may depreciate, which means there is a loss in the economic value of capital goods or tangible assets (e.g. machinery, factory equipment) due to wear and tear, and aging. This is known as the depreciation of capital goods.[10]
Marxism and Marxist theory of class
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The analysis of the technological sophistication of the means of production and how they are owned is a central component in the
In Marx's work and subsequent developments in Marxist theory, the process of
The increasing efficiency of the means of production via the creation and adaptation of new technologies over time has a tendency to rearrange local and global market structures, leading to the disruption of existing profit pools, creating the possibility of massive economic impact.
According to Marx, escalating tension between the upper and lower class is a major consequence of technology decreasing the value of labor force and the contradictory effect an evolving means of production has on established social and economic systems. Marx believed increasing inequality between the upper and lower classes acts as a major catalyst of
Ownership of the means of production and control over the
By contrast, socialism is defined as social ownership of the means of production so that the surplus product accrues to society at large.[14]
Determinant of class
Marx's theory of class defines classes in their relation to their ownership and control of the means of production. In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist class, is the class that owns the means of production and derives a passive income from their operation. Examples of the capitalist class include business owners, shareholders and the minority of people who own factories, machinery and lands. Countries considered as the capitalist countries include Australia, Canada and other nations which hold a free market economy. In modern society, small business owners, minority shareholders and other smaller capitalists are considered as Petite bourgeoisie according to Marx's theory, which is distinct from bourgeoisie and proletariat as they can buy the labour of others but also work along with employees.
In contrast, the proletariat, or working class, comprises the majority of the population that lacks access to the means of production and are therefore induced to sell their labour power for a wage or salary to gain access to necessities, goods and services.[15]
According to Marx, wages and salaries are considered as the price of labour power, related to working hours or outputs produced by the labour force. At the company level, an employee does not control and own the means of production in a capitalist mode of production. Instead, an employee is performing specific duties under a contract of employment, working for wages or salaries.[16] As for firms and profit-seeking organizations, from a personnel economics perspective, to maximize efficiency and productivity there must be an equilibrium between labour markets and product markets. In human resource practices, compensation structure tends to shift towards pay-for-performance bonus or incentive pay rather than base salary to attract the right workers, even if conflicts of interest exist in an employer-worker relationship.[17]
To the question of why classes exist in
Related terms
Mode of production (German: Produktionsweise) means the dominant way in which production is organised in society. For instance, "capitalism" is the name for the capitalist mode of production in which the means of production are owned privately by a small class (the bourgeoisie) who profits off the labor of the working class (the proletariat). Communism is a mode of production in which the means of production are not owned by anyone, but shared in common, without class-based exploitation. Besides capitalism and communism, there is another mode of production which is called a Mixed Economic System. In a mixed economy, private ownership of capital goods are protected and a certain level of the market economy is allowed. However, the government has the right to intervene in the market and economic activities for social objectives. Different from the pure capitalism, the government regulation exists to control particular means of production over the private business sector. Different from communism, the majority of means of production are privately owned rather than shared in common.[19]
See also
- Capital (economics)
- Clause IV
- Factors of production
- Information revolution
- Gross fixed capital formation
- Nationalization
- Productive forces
- Property
- Private property
- Privatization
- Relations of production
- Socialization (economics)
Footnotes
- ^
Gould, Peter; Olsson, Gunnar, eds. (1977). A Search for Common Ground. London: Pion. p. 215. units of productionin which that process takes place' [...].
- S2CID 212948343.
It takes the means of production to comprise anything that is or can be put to productive use... the means of production consist of anything that enables or could enable the extraction of surplus value (exploitation). Similarly, for Proudhon, goods not meant for immediate consumption, whose accumulation might introduce social inequality
- ^ Marx, Karl; Dobb, Maurice (1971). A contribution to the critique of political economy. London: Lawrence and Wishart. Archived at marxists.org
- ISBN 978-0393958607.
The conception of capital within orthodox economics. Within orthodox economics, the term 'capital' generally refers to the means of production.
- ^ Tuovila, Alicia. "Capital Goods Definition". Investopedia. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ISBN 978-1-349-95121-5, retrieved 2021-04-24
- ^ Karl Kautsky (1983). Selected Political Writings. 978-0333283844. p. 9.
Here we encounter a further characteristic of the modern wage proletarian. He works not with the individual but with social means of production, means of production so extensive that they can be operated only by a society of workers, not by the individual worker.
- ^ Michael Evans, Karl Marx, London, England, 1975. Part II, Chap. 2, sect. a; p. 63.
- ^ Flower, B. O. The Arena, Volume 37. The Arena Pub. Co, originally from Princeton University. p. 9
- )
- ^ James, Manyika (2013). "Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy" (PDF). www.mckinsey.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-07-22. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
- ^ Mode of Production. Marxism.org
- )
- ISBN 0-75258-227-5.
- ^ Ishiyama, Breuning, John, Marijke (October 22, 2010). 21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook. SAGE Publications, Inc.
For Marx, class was defined by an individual's relationship to the means of production...Class is determined by the extent to which people own most, some, or little of the means of production, or by their relationship to the means of production. It generally conflicts over control or access to the means of production that drives history.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - )
- JSTOR 30033753.
- ^ Frederick Engels: Socialism: Utopian and Scientific Chapter III Historical Materialism Marx2mao.com. p. 74
- ^ Staff, Investopedia. "Mixed Economic System Definition". Investopedia. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
References
- Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (1957). Political Economy: A Textbook. London: Lawrence and Wishart.