Past Labour, labour materialised in material benefits, means of production and consumer goods. Unlike living labour past labour does not produce a new value, but is only a condition of its production. The value of the means of production consumed in the process of labour is retained and is transferred by living labour to the new product. Under capitalism, past labour is estranged from direct producers and becomes capital, the condition and consequence of exploitation; it "is dead labour that, vampire-like only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks" (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, p. 224). In socialist society, broad opportunities are provided for introducing new technology which facilitates living labour and makes it possible to use it more effectively. As society develops further, the productivity of living labour and consequently the amount of wealth increasingly depend on the might of the means of production set in motion through living labour. Of great significance is the rational use of past labour and the effective exploitation of machines and equipment, as well as economising on raw and other materials and fuel. A higher output-asset ratio and lower material intensity are an important means and index of the efficiency of social production.