Living Labour, the conscious, purposeful activity of people, the expenditure of human nervous and muscular energy to produce some use value or useful effect. In the production process, it is linked inseparably with the means of production, themselves a result of expenditures of past labour. By the end of the act of production, the amount of use values grows, augmenting the material wealth of society. It the context of commodity production, labour has a dual character: on the one hand, it exists in the form of concrete labour and, on the other, in that of abstract labour. In the course of production, the value of the means of production consumed is transferred by concrete labour to the product made, while abstract labour is the source of the value of commodities. The dominant relations of production determine the social character of live labour and its division into necessary labour and surplus labour. In exploiter societies it is not only a condition for the life of the production workers themselves, but also a source of existence for the exploiting classes that own the means of production. In capitalist society, surplus labour is a source of surplus value, which is appropriated by capitalists without compensation. Seeking to increase surplus value, capitalists step up the exploitation of workers and make labour more intensive, which accelerates the wear and tear of labour power, raises the incidence of occupational disease and injury, and undermines the health of the working people. Under socialism, the working people work for themselves and their own society, which is free from the exploitation of man by man. Labour is truly free in character. Scientific and technical progress and higher qualifications of the working people enable live labour to cover a growing bulk of the means of production during the same working time. As a result, the share of live labour embodied in a unit of product decreases, while the total output per unit of working time grows and labour efficiency rises. Under capitalism, growing labour efficiency leads, on the one hand, to greater exploitation of the working people and a worsening of their situation and, on the other, to a further growth of the exploiting classes’ wealth. Under socialism, the growing efficiency of live labour ensures that the material and intellectual requirements of the people are met to a growing extent, the wealth of society as a whole expands, working time becomes shorter, and the working people’s free time increases and is used more rationally.