3 ms·

It's always the means of production, the means just change with the era.

• wincy 5y ago
  Doesn’t Jeff Bezos mostly own the means of logistics? Or is that bundled up in “means of production”. A warehouse full of iPhones isn’t worth much if it’s impossible to get them to your customers.
  • Sebguer 5y ago
    The means of distribution (or as you call it, the means of logistics) is part of the means of production, yeah. The mechanism by which products of labor are moved throughout the world is just as much a part of the means of production as anything else. It's one of the reasons that folks are so keen on privatizing things like the Royal Mail (one of the places that the UK right is ahead of the curve on the US) and the ongoing attempts to do the same to the USPS.
  • TeMPOraL 5y ago
    I feel it's just legacy in terminology - "means of production" imply "things you use to make stuff", because stuff was front-and-centre when it got coined as a political term. For most of the known history, humans didn't have much stuff. Making stuff was what seemed to bring all the money; logistical chains, being shorter, didn't seem that important. Additionally, all the stuff made was concrete, material things. But if you extend the meaning of "means of production" to cover not production of stuff, but production of more abstract economic value, you can see that the same struggle between different groups of people happens today, over not just material goods, but also virtual ones, as well as services. So Jeff Bezos definitely owns the "means of production" of logistics service.