Means of production are the resources and tools that workers use in order to produce. They are the sum of the subjects of labour (which include raw materials, land, and natural resources) and the instruments of production (which include machinery, equipment, tools, and infrastructure).[1] In the capitalist mode of production, the bourgeoisie owns the means of production even though the proletariat does most of the work.
The means of production include:
- natural resources (land, forests, water, subsoil, raw materials);
- tools;
- facilities necessary for productive activity: industrial factories, mining facilities, etc.;
- means of transport and communication;
- means of exchange between members of society: facilities necessary for distribution (warehouses, sales stores) and credit organizations (banks).
Notes
- ↑ "If we examine the whole process from the point of view of its result, the product, it is plain that both the instruments and the subject of labour, are means of production, and that the labour itself is productive labour." -- Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chap. 7: "The Labour-Process And The Process Of Producing Surplus-Value' Marxists.org