ABSTRACT
For a world that has created so much wealth, there is a curious poverty in hindsight. With memory so fickle, little is recorded about how exactly it was done, even less is reflected upon, much is not learned, even more is not taught and the world is a poorer place for it. Indisputably, the productivity that the world has so far achieved has brought impressive benefits to many and has all been pulled off without much formal instruction in the art of decision-making. For two postscripts that harvest some contemporary experience-based lessons still to be learned in the First World and which contain a rare admission by one government of the less than adequate skills of its managers in just one public service sector, the news came in May 2004 that the European Parliament had outlawed 48 hour-plus working weeks. In today's world, wisdom needs a similar figurehead.
