 Mechanisation, defined as increased inputs of machinery per unit of output combined with the same or reduced amount of labour-input, necessarily lowers the maximum rate of profit.1) Some Marxists simply dropped the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, claiming that there are enough other reasons to criticise capitalism, that the tendency for crises can be established without the law, so that it is not an essential feature of Marx's economic theory.Others would say that the law helps to explain the recurrent cycle of crises, but cannot be used as a tool to explain the long term developments of the capitalist economy.