means-of-production

According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life.

The sum of productive forces, capital funds and social forms of intercourse, which every individual and generation finds in existence as something given, is the real basis of what the philosophers have conceived as "substance" and "essence of man," and what they have deified and attacked: a real basis which is not in the least disturbed, in its effect and influence on the development of men, by the fact that these philosophers revolt against it as "self-consciousness" and the "Unique.

For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they__nlike most human beings__ave the means of production, and human beings, because they__nlike all companies__ave the means of reproduction.