VII.

The new things of the world of work

3.15 The decentralization of production, which assigns to smaller companies several tasks
previously undertaken by larger production interests, gives vitality and new energy to the area of
small and medium-sized businesses.
-This means that there is an emergence of new businesses characterized by small production
interests at work in modern production sectors or in decentralized activities of larger companies.
-So if the activities of yesterday required the hiring of employees, today, they are carried out in
new ways that encourage independent labor and, thus, they are marked by higher risk and greater
responsibility.
Work in small and medium-sized business, the work of artisan and independent work can represent
an occasion to make the actual work experience more human
-In this case, it is both in terms of the possibility of establishing positive personal relationships in
smaller-sized communities and in terms of the opportunities for greater initiative and industriousness
3.16 In developing countries, there has been an expansion in recent years of informal and
hidden economic activities. This represents a promising sign of economic growth and
development, but it raises many ethical and legal problems.
-The significant increase in job opportunities in the context of such activities is owed to the lack
of specialization in a large segment of the local work force and to disorderly growth in formal economic
sectors.
-Ethical and legal problems is rooted from the large number of people that are forced to work
under seriously distressing conditions and in situations that lack the rules necessary for safeguarding
workers dignity.
b. Social doctrine and the new things
3.17 Given these impressive new things in the world of work, the Churchs social doctrine
recommends first of all to avoid the error of insisting that the current changes take place in a
deterministic manner.
-The decisive factor and the referee of this complex phase of change is the human person, who
must remain the true protagonist of his work. He can and must take on in a creative and responsible
fashion the present innovations and re-organizations so that they lead to the growth and the person, the
family, and society and the entire human family.
-Enlightenment for all can be found in the appeal of the subjective dimension of work, which
according to the teaching of the churchs social doctrine must be given due priority because human work
is done directly be the people created in the image of God and are called to prolong the work of creation
by subduing the earth.
3.18 Mechanistic and economistic interpretations of the activity of production, however prevalent
and influential they may be, have been outdated by scientific analysis of the problems connected
with work.
-Concrete findings should also provide the impetus for the immediate dismissal of the theoretical
perspectives and restrictive, insufficient operative criteria concerning the present dynamics.
-These prove to be intrinsically incapable of urgent human needs that go well beyond merely
economic categories.
-The church is well aware, and has always taught that men and women, have certain needs that
are not restricted merely to having because their nature and vocation are linked with the Transcendent
One.