Lecture 9: The Material-Technical Supply Plan

The material-technical supply in the national economy is the supply of producer goods to the various sectors of the national economy, which is a necessary condition for achieving expanded output. Here material refers to raw materials, processed materials, fuels, and electric power. Technical refers to machinery and equipment. Regardless of the type of economy, the expansion of output requires the consumption of a certain amount of means of labor (namely, machines and equipment) and objects of labor (namely, raw and processed materials, fuels, and electric power). Marx said, "The act of production itself, in all its factors, is also an act of consumption.">sup>1>/sup> Therefore, in order to expand output, we must supply a corresponding amount of producer goods. However, in capitalist society, because producer goods are privately owned by the capitalists, production is chaotic. The producer goods needed by enterprises are supplied through market transactions in an unplanned way. Only in socialist society and in the transition period, when all or the major producer goods are publicly owned, can the state systematically plan the material-technical supply and thereby overcome the overstocking and waste of materials and use all material resources in a rational way, thus guaranteeing the fulfillment and overfulfillment of the production plan, the capital construction plan, and the sustained growth of the national economy.