Factors of Production and Technology,

including resources such as: Labor, Land, Capital, Raw Material and Energy

The resources and technology people use to produce goods and services make up this category. Production and consumption act as inputs and outputs to changes that may occur in the economic system. This category helps us trace what elements enter the system, how they are modified and what emerges at the end of the process. The production process is generally dependent on inputs such as: capital, land, labor, raw materials, energy, climate and the infrastructures of technology,communication and transportation. All of these can be described as outputs of processes specified by other relationships on the Diagram. Furthermore, production systems are defined by the interaction among relevant factors at a given moment. For example, land is affected by climate, thus tying the category explicitly to global scale environmental processes; the way land is exploited is influenced by cultural tradition and settlement patterns. Finally, the potential labor force is determined by the number of people considered employable and of appropriate age, and affected by processes such as marriage, birth, death, immigration and emigration.