Work - its availability, quality and conditions - is a major determinant of psychic and somatic health. Health in turn is a prominent social good that tends to be unequally distributed in the population in function of its accessibility and the conditions of its social production. Its evolution depends, among other things, on the evolution of work. This sketch starts with a short recall of some aspects of our socio-economic system's meso- and macrohistory, distinguishes three models of macro-economic organization that coexist unequally in present-day industrialized countries, and finally zooms in on some aspects of work organization and worker qualification. Although it focuses on work and some of its economic conditions, its approach will be mainly sociological.