View source for Means of labor

{{Marxism}}

The '''means of labor''' (also called '''instruments of labor''')  is a concept in [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[political economy]] that refers to "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of his labor, and transforms it."{{Full citation needed | date = March 2022}}{{Page needed | date = March 2022}} (Institute of Economics of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.]], 1957) Means of labor include [[tool]]s, [[machine]]ry, buildings and land used for [[Production (economics)|production]], and [[infrastructure]] such as [[road]]s, [[telecommunications network]]s, and so forth.{{Full citation needed | date = March 2022}}{{Page needed | date = March 2022}} [[Labour (economics)|Labor]], itself, defines "work, especially hard physical work."{{Full citation needed | date = March 2022}}{{Page needed | date = March 2022}}

The means of labor are one of three basic [[factors of production]] (Marx, 1967, p. 174), along with human labor and the [[subject of labor]] (the material worked on).{{Full citation needed | date = March 2022}}{{Page needed | date = March 2022}}

The means of labor and the [[subject of labor]] comprise the [[means of production]] of society.{{Full citation needed | date = March 2022}}{{Page needed | date = March 2022}}

In some formulations, the means of labor and human labor (including the activity itself as well as the laborer's [[Skill (labor)|skills]] and [[Knowledge economy|knowledge]] used in production) comprise the [[productive forces]] of society (e.g., Sheptulin, 1978).{{Page needed | date = March 2022}} Other formulations define productive forces more narrowly as the union of instruments of production{{Clarify | reason = 'instruments of production' requires a definition | post-text = : 'instruments of production' requires a definition | date = March 2022}} and the laborers who wield them (e.g., Institute of Economics, 1957),{{Page needed | date = March 2022}} thereby excluding invested [[capital (economics)|capital]].

==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. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ Internet copy].
*Sheptulin, A. P. (1978). ''Marxist-Leninist Philosophy''. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

{{Marxist & Communist phraseology}}
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[[Category:Marxist terminology]]
[[Category:Marxian economics]]


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