Introducción a la Economía - PDF

Here's the transcription of the document into a structured markdown format: # EL PROCESO ECONÓMICO ## 1 DEFINICIÓN The advances obtained in the natural sciences since the 15th century, such as the behavior of celestial bodies, the discovery of universal gravitation, of the cell, of the molecule, o...

Here's the transcription of the document into a structured markdown format: # EL PROCESO ECONÓMICO ## 1 DEFINICIÓN The advances obtained in the natural sciences since the 15th century, such as the behavior of celestial bodies, the discovery of universal gravitation, of the cell, of the molecule, of the atom, the evolution of species, the indestructibility of matter and energy, have modified the way of conceiving nature, which no longer appears as something immutable, perpetual, but variable, subject to changes. This way of seeing nature was extended to the entire material world, and society is taken as the most developed part of it. Social reality is conceived in permanent change and transformation, that is, as a process. Social development is also subject to legality, the laws that govern it are objective and knowable. When studying the social laws, the economic phenomenon proved to be very important in explaining the changes and transformations of society. The economic process refers to the set of relations, activities and economic phenomena that occur in production, distribution, exchange and consumption and that are in constant change, transformation and development. The economic process can also be called the production process, since production aims to satisfy needs, therefore containing consumption. It has also been mentioned that, due to the social character of production, consumption implies a prior distribution and exchange. The production or economic process is composed of production itself, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. ## 2 FASES DEL PROCESO ECONÓMICO ### LA PRODUCCIÓN, EL ASPECTO OBJETIVO In the animal kingdom, man is the only species that does not survive by adapting to the natural environment, but strives to accommodate the natural environment to his needs. In order to survive and develop, he needs to produce the goods needed for this, and for this, he violates nature. Production is the adaptation of nature to human needs, and through labor man acts on nature. (Mandel, trad. 1980) It is the set of human activities that transform and adapt the reserves and forces of nature to human needs (Marx, trad. 1971). In this process the members of society create the objects corresponding to human needs. It is composed of various actions that are called work. Production has a social character, and derives from the social character of labour. The common work of men during production is called cooperation. Whent all the participants in this process perform the same task in all phases, or all members of the community participate in all productive activities, there is simple cooperation; as they specialize in different activity or the elaboration of different products the division of labor appears. If this division is done according to factors related to age or sex, the division is of a natural nature, and is called natural division of labor; when groups of independent producers specialize in certain productive activities there is the social division of labor; some men work for others, the productive individual appears in a state of dependence as a member of a larger whole. The work of an individual is but a part of the social work whose product is represented by the goods that serve directly or indirectly to satisfy the needs of society. Production is historically determined: when we speak of production, we refer to a certain stage of development of production. When we speak of production it is always a production at a given level of development of society, of a production of individuals living society (p. 17). Production is a general process consisting of the subprocesses: production, distribution, exchange and consumption. Production is direct consumption. On the one hand, when the individual produces, develops his faculties and also spends them, raw materials are also consumed. In the same way nature consumes its elements when creating. Also consumption is direct production. In nature, the consumption of the elements and chemical substances constitutes the production of a plant. Man through consumption, for example, food, produces his own body. Without production there is no consumption, but without consumption there is no production either. Consumption gives rise to production in two ways: 1) The product does not really become a product except in consumption: a dress does not really become a dress until it is worn. 2) Consumption creates the need for new production. But consumption also reproduces the need. Production on its part shows the following: 1) It provides consumption with its matter, its object, 2) It provides a need to matter, that is, the need experienced is due to the sensation produced by the object. When the product is finished, its return to the individual will depend on his relations with other individuals, since he cannot appropriate directly, between production and consumption intervenes distribution (p. 26 -,31). That as productive forces developed and the division of labor was given, so did the change. ### 2.1.1 THE FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMIC PROBLEM #### 2.1.1.1 WHAT, HOW MUCH, HOW, AND FOR WHOM TO PRODUCE It can be said that the fundamental practical and theoretical problem of economics is the production of goods for the satisfaction of needs. The production of goods has as its primary objective their consumption. Conceptualized in this way, special emphasis is placed on the production process as the primary and most important element, therefore, several questions arise around it. Samuelson and Nordhaus (2004/2006) indicate that any society must face three problems: 1. What goods are to be produced and in what quantities. How are the goods to be produced, who is to produce them, with what resources and with what technological methods. 2. For whom the goods are to be produced. The answers to these questions are found in the following elements: A) The level of development of the capacities of human beings and of the instruments. B) The agents that direct production. C) The social division of labour and D) The distribution of social wealth. With respect to what useful objects to produce, this is directly linked to the development of the productive forces and to the ownership of the means of production. For example, in primitive societies, production was limited to the natural conditions, what could be obtained with the simple instruments they had, as well as to the physical resistance of the members of the community. In the natural economies of slavery and feudalism, the leaders and owners of the estates are the ones who organize production and decide what to produce according to the needs and the means of production they have. In socialist societies, the States, through centralized plans, decide the levels of production. In developed capitalist societies the advance of technology makes possible the diversification and increase of production and through advertising a series of needs are created, at the same time, the purchasing power of the population widens the demand for all kinds of goods.. Samuelson (trad. 1979) considers that in an economy with a given population, with a given level of technique, concrete quantities and qualities of factories and machine-tools, land, hydraulic energy and natural resources, to decide what should be produced and how, the fundamental thing is the way to allocate those resources to the thousands of possible productions; that is to say, it must determine how much land is to be devoted to the cultivation of wheat - and how much to pasture, how many factories will produce hairpins, how much specialized manpower will work in the machine-tool workshops, and so on successively. According to Samuelson and Nordhaus (2004/2006) in a market economy, a sort of monetary vote, through daily purchasing decisions consumers determine what things have to be produced. These payments that are made at the cash registers come from the rents and dividends that the same consumers receive periodically and that constitute their income. The above presupposes not only the type of products, their variety but also their quantity, that is, how much is going to be produced. With regard to how it is going to be produced, it implies: a) the form of cooperation in work or the degree of division of labour. b) The organization of the productive process. These questions are basically associated with the level of development of the productive forces. Thus, in the natural economies of community property, for example, in the primitive community it is produced for the participants in the production process and because simple co-operation predominates, all participate in all activities. In the more developed societies there is the technical social division of labour, as well as the separation between those who participate directly in productive labour, others who complement it through services and those who only direct the process. On the other hand, the development of science and technology will contribute to organize the material and human resources of the departments of the company as well as the utilization of the most advanced means of production. When thinking about the capitalist economy, the authors cited infer that competition among the different producers decides how these things have to be produced, since the method that is cheaper, both for its cost and for its yield, will oust the more expensive procedure. To increase the benefits it will be necessary to reduce the costs to the minimum, adopting for that purpose the most effective methods,. Who are going to be allocated the products, is conditioned directly by the social division of labor and by the development of market production. In a society where the specialization of productive tasks has not been given, production is of a natural character and is destined to its producers, but in societies where the social division of labor prevails, the products are destined for others, for exchange. Who are the goods produced for, depends on the supply and demand in the markets of the factors of production. On the one hand, one must take into account (the proportion of wages and of capital profits, which constitute the income of all, with respect to each one and of the collectivity. It is clear that the character of the resulting distribution of income will depend greatly on the initial distribution of property and of the capacities acquired or inherited, of the educational opportunities and of the presence or absence of discrimination of race or of sex. (p. 18) ### 2.2 LA DISTRIBUCIÓN It is the distribution of a proportion of the value of the manufactured articles according to the participation in the production and the relation that one has with the means of production. It determines the proportion that corresponds to the social groups, whether in the form of products as it was done in the first stages of society or as a part of the total value of all the goods elaborated expressed in money as in the current society. What is produced is distributed and according to how it is produced. In capitalist society distribution takes the form of salary and profit. Distribution is a stage of the economic process, in a restricted sense it is defined as the distribution of a part of the social product or national product among the participants in the production process. In. a broad sense, consists in the distribution: a) of the means of production, b) of the members of society among the different branches of production, which implies the subordination of individuals to relations of production to relations of certain production; c) of the national income (p. 34). The distribution of the instruments of production and of the labor force in the different productive branches, will allow a certain form of distribution of the product. The distribution is determined by the production because only what is produced can be distributed and the form depends on how one has participated in the production, mainly by the form of property on the means of production. The social or national product is "... the total volume of material goods produced in the society during one year" (Nikitin trad 1977, p. 134). It integrates two parts: on the one hand the cost of the value of the means of production consumed and that is destined to renew a new productive process and on the other, a new value or that is the rent to be born. The nation income is constituted by the income of the participants in the productive process: the owners of the means of production and of the labor force (profit and salary) as well as the new value created by small producers (peasants and artisans). The national income goes through three phases: 1) the production, 2) the primary distribution and 3) the secondary distribution. It is created in the sphere of material production, that is to say in the industrial, artisanal, agricultural, construction and in those activities that constitute a prolongation of the production process; that is to say it is created by productive labor. Primary distribution consists of the distribution of income among the fundamental classes: capitalists and workers, or the profit and wages (basic income). The profit in turn is distributed in the form of industrial profit, commercial profit and loan interest. Since industrial entrepreneurs do not sell the products directly to consumers, but this activity is carried out by merchants, they must cede part of the profit in the form of commercial profit; on the other hand, industrialists and merchants borrow from the banking sector, so they also transfer part of that profit or surplus value in the form of financial interest. Secondary distribution occurs when those who receive basic income, spend their income, pay for various services, rents, taxes and generate in turn income of other people, of the State and these again redistribute income, generating a chain and a multiplier effect of income. When some group of people dep of perceiving income, the chain of distribution of income is interrupted, causing other sectors, also can not perceive income and recessionary effects occur in the economy, for example when a group of workers is unemployed A below is presented a scheme of the primary distribution of income, taken from Spiridonova Atlas and others (trad 1983). ### 2.3 EL CAMBIO The slow development of the productive forces in primitive production, led to the formation of a provision, a permanent surplus and the social division of labor. Since the tribe has reserves of food, some of its members can devote most of their time to the production of objects not intended for food, what was previously a personal skill, is becoming in a specialization, in the embryo of a trade (Mandel trad 1980). The social division of labor can be defined as the: separation between different classes of work and occupations of the individuals of any society; or also the separation between professions, trades and branches of economic activity within a society. The fact that different communities produced different things, makes the exchange possible; it makes no sense to exchange very similar things. For the articles to be exchanged, the community must recognize people a right over them, it is not possible to exchange foreign things, the possession implies that they can be disposed of them; therefore, independent owners must exist. The change is not accounted economically within productive units. In each productive unit, for example, within tribes or communities with natural or self-sufficient economy, there was no change, only sharing. Nor within the slave estates and of the feuds, nor exists within the modern factories or of the families. The change can be defined as the conversion of products of certain utility into products of different utility, or the conversion of products into money or of money into goods. It is the alienation of an article to obtain another or money, It is the acquisition of Lcs articles that are needed according to the proportion of the production that has corresponded in the distribution. ### 2.4 EL CONSUMO The end of production is consumption, is the utilization of the products. In the measure that man increases his production, should then increase his consumption and in the measure that his needs increase should increase production, Between the production and the consumption there is a unity, the production constitutes at the same time consumption of human energies, consumption of means of production, The consumption constitutes at the same time the production and reproduction of man. But due to the social character of labor, what is produced is not consumed directly, there are other intermediate processes; according to the development of society: the distribution and the exchange, In consumption, the products so become objects of enjoyment, of individual appropriation, the product abandons' the social sphere to become directly in satisfier do the needs. ## 3 LOS ELEMENTOS DEL PROCESO DE PRODUCCIÓN To transform and act on nature, human beings perform various activities, exchange activities and use various instruments, all these elements are described below. ### 3.1 EL TRABAJO It is a human activity, conscious, with a predetermined end: the elaboration of material goods for the satisfaction of needs. It is a process between nature and man, through which man procures useful objects. 'The labor process is the rational activity aimed at the production of useful objects, the assimilation of natural materials to the service of human needs, the natural condition of human life, independent of forms of life, and common to all social forms equally" (Marx, Trad. 1978, pp. 130- 137). Common work was given by the possibility of communication and help between men. "Work, social organization, language and consciousness are therefore proper characteristics of man inseparably linked and mutually determined" (Mandelt trad. 1980, p. 26). In the initial stages of human development, work was carried out in the form of simple community cooperation and the tasks were exclusively of collection, hunting and fishing and during that time the human being lived in a state of indigence (980,000 years since having appeared on earth). The cooperative organization of work implies, on the one hand, the joint execution of certain economic activities - building huts, hunting large animals, cleaning the weeds from the trails, cutting trees, plowing new fields -t and on the other hand the mutual help between different families in the daily work. However, in all stages of development, there is the natural division of labor, according to age or sex; for example, men were dedicated to hunting and women and children to the gathering of fruits. The slow learning of new techniques, knowledge and discoveries, allowed the appearance, next to the product necessary for the survival of the community, a surplus, The functions of this surplus were: to constitute a reserve of food, to allow the social division of labor and to promote the growth of the population The appearance of domestication and animal husbandry and agriculture, allow the constitution of a permanent surplus product. This phenomenon gives rise to the first great social division of labor: next to the agricultural peoples, appear the pastoral peoples; it is assumed that the breeding of domestic animals began approximately 10,000 years B.C. and systematic agriculture 15,000 years #### A.C. At the beginning the agricultural technique was rudimentary, but together with the breeding of animals allowed man control over his means of subsistence. With the use of irrigation and the employment of traction animals, humanity was assured permanently a surplus of food, gave rise to artisan activities become autonomous, agriculture could feed thousands of men, there was the separation between the city and the E field (p. 34). The specialization of men in different productive activities gave rise to the social division of labor and appeared a new modality of cooperation, through which one interdepe took one or the other and the work of some, is for others. This independence became more evident when (a second great division of labor) by the livestock and agncultura appeared arlesanal activitics. Work can be of two types pro ductive work and non productive worlc the first refers to the work whose result is that one to that production But does not create new. is the sphere of here will refer to ### 3.2 Las Fuerzas Productivas Están_integradas por la fuerza de trabajo y los medios de producción. Constituyen el vehículo o el motor que impulsa el desarrollo social. La sociedad avanza porque las fuerzas productivas la impulsan hacia delante. En los inicios de la sociedad humana cuando las fuerzas productivas se movían de una manera extraordinariamente lenta, la subsistencia del género humano fue sumamente difícil. Pero en la medida que se superan las etapas, las fuerzas productivas se desenvuelven más rápidamente, la situación de la humanidad mejora considerablemente. Pero también, cuando en cierta etapa, la evolución de las fuerzas productivas se detiene, o bien en ciertas comunidades las fuerzas productivas no avanzan como corresponde, en esas sociedades se manifiestan complejos *problemas sociales.* What marks in the last instance the passage from an inferior stage to a superior one of society is the advance of the productive forces. Many times erroneously attributes the progress of humanity in absolute form to certain elements such as the geographical conditions to the qualities of certain outstanding men and even to not natural causes. But the existence of humanity and its development are based on the process of work and the simple factors that intervene in The development of productive forces means the gradual knowledge, experience and capacities acquired in the process of work, the discoveries, the inventions, the technique. The production and utilization of increasingly advanced instruments as well as the capacity to transform and harness the elements of nature.