Much has been said in recent years about the end of work, even at times of a nascent civilization of leisure based on a reduction of work time and a shift in aspirations from the professional world to the more personal world of culture and free-time activities. Indeed, the decline of the idea of work has accompanied the decline of the larger idea of the society of production, because financial capitalism has a dominant influence on economic life. That members of society are being called up to behave more as consumers than as workers fits quite well with this domination. If, however, one replaces the idea of consuming with the idea of creating a personal life project based on self-esteem, one can see that work is an essential ingredient of this construction of a life history, especially when unemployment and job insecurity affect a sizeable portion of the population. In short, the foregoing leads the author to envision a return, at once necessary and possible, to a society of production and work.