A Social pact among Producers is a chimera. Invoked by many to stop the decline of the Italian economy during the last two decades, it finds the main saboteurs in the national politics and in the promoters of the «expansionary austerity» in Europe. Economists put forward various proposals, and the social partners seem at least partly ready to a dialogue, but the possible scenarios do not envisage feasible solutions. Meanwhile, from 1990 to 2000 labour income share decreased by 10 percentage points, to recover less than 2 points in the following decade; productivity growth slowed down since the mid-90s to became almost zero since 2000; the gap between productivity and real wage increased in the 90s to slightly decline in the euro period, when stationary productivity and wages prevailed. A change in route is urgently needed, in Italy and in Europe, and investment in work and innovation, the only two factors that can bring us back on a growth path.