This article discusses the nature of human work as manifested particularly in market settings. Human work is properly oriented toward the service of others, a disposition which has important implications for how we view the goal of work in relationship to things like profit, as well as the development of the human person and society. The complex interrelationship between the producer, the thing produced, and the one for whom something is produced, comprises the basis for a proper understanding of the relationship between work and human development, both at the individual and social level