ABSTRACT
The dogmatic injunction according to which economics should separate ethics from efficiency, the latter meaning that the economy strictly aims at the production of the maximum output given a certain amount of resources or at using the smallest amount of resources possible for the production of a given amount of output, has been so successfully rooted in mainstream economic thought that, in times of severe unemployment, one should not be surprised if the economy does not seem too eager to create jobs. Indeed, work being one resource amongst others, it is quite natural that the economy should try to save as much work as it can. This is what efficiency is all about within the mainstream development paradigm. Cars spend less petrol, home appliances spend less electricity, communications take less time, and economic activity requires fewer people. What, then, should be the place of our right to work in a world relentlessly pursuing economic perfection?
