The productive forces of society are the general totality of all means of production and people who possess the knowledge, skills and abilities to put these funds into action to produce the desired material wealth.
Such a structure, consisting of people and means of production, is common to all socio-economic formations. The development of productive forces depends directly on the person, because it is he who is the determining link in the structure of production. This is explained by the following factors:
- man creates all the elements of productive forces, including tools;
- only labor is capable of turning tools and production materials into factors of production. Even the most modern and sophisticated technique without human intervention becomes completely inactive and useless;
- human needs are the main force that drives the socio-economic progress of society.
By comparing all these factors, we can make a confident conclusion that a person is assigned an active role in the labor process, and means and objects of labor are passive. Thus, it is impossible to put capital, identified with the means of labor, on one level in importance with a person.
Properties of productive forces
1) Complex structure
Productive forces include all means of labor, because they are used for productive consumption and create energy sources. In all formations, the forces of nature also enter into the composition of productive forces, which man has learned to use - the sun, the wind. Most often, natural forces act as energy sources.
Under current conditions, science, methods of organizing production, and information also become independent elements of the structure of productive forces.
Thus, the obvious conclusion is that productive forces are a fairly complex system that includes many different elements. In composition they are material and spiritual, in the nature of reproduction - objective and subjective, in specificity - social and natural.
2) Continuous development
Being in an endless process of development, productive forces are constantly enriched, change qualitatively and quantitatively.
In the era of the early development of capitalism, it was enough for workers to have a low level of education and qualifications. But modern production needs can only be met by workers with at least secondary specialized education and a high level of qualification. And in some countries, for example, in Japan, society is faced with the practical task of switching to universal higher education.
The increasing complexity and automation of production requires from people not only high mental and physical abilities, but also creative, organizational and spiritual development.
3) The interaction of all elements of the structure
Since all elements of the production forces constantly interact, they are in dialectic unity and dependence on each other. This gives rise to such forms of social interaction as cooperation, division of labor, etc. Contradictions arise between the individual elements of the productive forces, which are resolved mainly independently of production relations.
4) Internal laws of development
Another property of the productive forces is the presence of internal laws of development. This includes, for example, the law of transferring functions from private to material factors of production, the law of outstripping growth in the volume of objective labor in the overall structure of labor, the correspondence of living and objective labor, the law of changing growth and labor productivity, etc. All these laws are driven by internal contradictions, which cause various changes in the development of productive forces, as well as qualitative changes in their content.
Productive forces in their entirety express the relationship between man and nature, and also convey the process of labor, which is common to all modes of production. Thus, the transformation of natural materials and substances according to human needs is ensured, spiritual and material benefits are created that directly determine the development of the productivity of social labor.