The means of labor (also called instruments of labor) is a concept in

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

that refers to "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of his labor, and transforms it." (Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., 1957) Means of labor include

tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...

machine A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...

ry, buildings and land used for production, and

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

such as

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types o ...

telecommunications network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, mes ...

s, and so forth.

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

, itself, defines "work, especially hard physical work." The means of labor are one of three basic

factors of production In economics, factors of production, resources, or inputs are what is used in the production process to produce output—that is, goods and services. The utilized amounts of the various inputs determine the quantity of output according to the rel ...

(Marx, 1967, p. 174), along with human labor and the

subject of labor Subject of labor, or object of labor, is a concept in Marxist political economy that refers to "everything to which man's labor is applied". The subject of labor may be materials provided directly by nature like timber or coal, or materials that h ...

(the material worked on). The means of labor and the

compromise the

means of production The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as a ...

of society. In some formulations, the means of labor and human labor (including the activity itself as well as the laborer's

skills A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...

and

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distin ...

used in production) comprise the

productive forces Productive forces, productive powers, or forces of production (German: ''Produktivkräfte'') is a central idea in Marxism and historical materialism. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' own critique of political economy, it refers to the combina ...

of society (e.g., Sheptulin, 1978). Other formulations define productive forces more narrowly as the union of instruments of production and the laborers who wield them (e.g., Institute of Economics, 1957), thereby excluding invested

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

References

*Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (1957). ''Political Economy: A Textbook.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart. *Marx, Karl (1867 , 1967). ''Capital'' Vol. I. New York: International Publishers
Internet copy
*Sheptulin, A. P. (1978). ''Marxist-Leninist Philosophy''. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Marxist terminology Marxian economics {{Politics-stub