In this attractive debate about work, new and old at the same time like the history of man, we can all enter into a phase of acute schizophrenia with a limited double life, if we do not make the distinction from the beginning between working for other people, paid, measured in time, formal and officially registered; and working in the broad sense that we can define as the human activity that directly or indirectly transforms the mineral, vegetable and animal world, the cosmos in general, trying to extract one's suitability or human vocation as perfectly as possible and looking for personal and generalised growth and in terms of approaching the urgent and immediate, mediate and ultimate goals.

To say that it is necessary to work less in this last sense, and even justifying it based on the principle of solidarity, is of a stupidity of such a calibre that stupefies, makes blush and causes shame not only to all those that deserve to be called economists but also to the average person that is minimally in tune with common sense and universal good sense. Economy and work are practically synonymous because the economy is a chore that corresponds to all those that have been, are and will be. We can wisely philosophise following Millán Puelles saying that the economic task is a necessity based on other necessities. Our corporal spirit nature has daily necessities and urgencies, not invented but real, that complicate our life and create problems for us. To satisfy those necessities and overcome those widespread urgencies it is necessary to do something, it is necessary to work manually and intellectually, "to dominate" the earth, make the most of the physical and human resources that are offered, not only to eliminate urgencies but also to accomplish our healthy ambitions, fulfill our personal objectives, develop ourselves as individual, homely or social beings, and to come closer to those ultimate goals.

Shortage, especially shortage of time, is an inseparable feature of the economy. Since the material as well as especially spiritual necessities, desires, objectives and preferences (education, culture, art, company,... etc.) are infinite, and natural resources (work, capital instruments and, I insist, time) are limited, there will always be a shortage. Physical, intellectual and reflexive working effort, correctly guided to the best goals, is always valuable. For that reason we can say that work is the scarcest of the production factors in quantity as well as and especially in quality. The demand for good work is always superior to the supply therefore it is evident that human work is a high-priority cause of the wealth of a company, region or country, and that the improvement in that activity and in the laboriousness of people favours economic growth and development. Widespread activity and well doing enrich, whereas passivity, laziness or the continuous nap impoverish.

It is another matter to speak about official work remunerated by a company, the already obsolete standardized and homogeneous permanent position. We have to forget the attitude of getting paid for the mere fact of being a certain time in a certain work position although we are simply staring vacantly. The possibility of remunerating work depends on the success or failure in the markets of the goods and services that we help to produce, of their acceptance by the potential clients. The company is constituted in the economic unit of destination where shareholders, managers, managers, suppliers and workers are all launched. Once there is a greater capacity of competitive managerial service to the always-changing new demands, there is a greater possibility of more remunerated work. In open competitive economies without privileges, the managerial strength of a country determines in short the capacity of employment absorption in quantity and quality. The Spanish challenge in the next few years consists of being able to transform the passive and routine mentality of those who simply turn up (motivated by the State of the badly named Socialist Welfare), into work with its own personality, intelligent, qualitatively changing and with a managerial mentality although we are paid a salary. That managerial personnel spirit always assumes the risks of its own freedom and, consequently, its responsibility in success as well as in failure.

We have to know how to suffer with grace the deep metamorphosis from the industrial society towards the new society of knowledge. So that remunerated formal work is increased it is a necessary condition that the general spirit of work is increased at all times and in all places. The magic formula could be this: 1) That the State does not grant privileges nor meddle, especially in economics, 2) That all managers really work and 3) That all workers become managers. But I say: if we all become managers why do we have trade unions? But if all are workers at the same time with their own entity why do we have collective managerial organizations?

To understand these exciting topics of principles a little more I recommend reading the foreword slowly (read Genesis) of the best treaty of economy ever written: the Bible. Pleasant surprises are continuous.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Gaceta de los negocios, Wednesday November 10th 1993