At a time when one directive resonates: we should work more. So be it. For those who wish to, for those who can, let us work more. But, above all, let us all work!
The real weakness of our economy is not so much the number of hours worked, but the number of people deprived of work. The challenge is not only productivity, it is the inclusion through activity of all those who are excluded from employment, with all the social and economic consequences that this exclusion generates. Yet, there is a simple, powerful solution, capable of uniting different viewpoints, of reweaving the national bond, of giving substance again to our republican pact. This solution is employment for all.
Behind the abstract figures that are too often presented as a relative success, lies a contrasting reality. On one side, entire sectors suffering from a shortage of skilled labor and, on the other, those who, deprived of any activity, sink into isolation, exclusion, and a loss of bearings. In both cases, the conclusion is the same: the absence of employment fractures the nation, fuels division, weighs on growth, and undermines cohesion.
This fracture has a cost. At a time when the State is hunting for 44 billion euros in savings, let us remember that the cost of professional exclusion represents a considerable burden. This is the true social debt, this is the real burden, the one that exhausts public finances and weakens society.
The Best Lever for Integration
Reducing inactivity is not just a social ambition, it is also an intelligent calculation in favor of public finances, allowing people deprived of employment to contribute through their efforts to the recovery of public accounts and the economic prosperity of the nation. Only sufficient means allocated by public authorities to back-to-work programs will sustainably meet this common ambition of employment for all.