評論
打印
The long-term future of work has changed for the better this year because it has become more digitised. Remote working is easing the bottleneck of expensive housing in thriving cities. Home-workers report higher levels of happiness and productivity. At the end of 2020 American firms spent 25% more on computers, in real terms, than a year earlier. Even pessimists like Robert Gordon, an economist, expect this burst of technological investment to bring about faster productivity growth, which means higher wages.
工作的長期前景在今年有所好轉，因為它變得更加數字化了。遠程辦公正在緩解繁榮城市中昂貴住房所帶來的的瓶頸。居家打工人的幸福感和工作效率更高。到2020年底，美國公司在電腦上的實際支出比一年前增加了25%。即便是經濟學家羅伯特·戈登這樣的悲觀主義者，也預計這一技術投資的爆發將帶來生產率的更快增長，也意味著工資的提高。
A golden age for workers is welcome. It is right to judge economic progress by the purchasing power of median wages, not profits or share prices. Jobs booms like those in most rich countries in 2019 bring huge benefits, by incentivising the training and good treatment of workers, as well as by reducing racial and gender inequalities. Yet governments can help determine the extent of these gains. Their goal should be to raise workers’ living standards through higher productivity, rather than focusing on dividing the spoils through regulation and protection.
打工人的黃金時代值得歡迎。判斷經濟發展的正確方式是依靠工資中位數的購買力，而非利潤或股價。就像大多數富裕國家在2019年經歷的就業繁榮，通過激勵培訓、為員工提供良好待遇、以及減少種族和性別不平等而帶來了巨大的好處。然而，政府可以幫助確定這些收益的程度。他們的目標應該是通過提高生產力來提高工人的生活水平，而不是注重于通過監管和保護來瓜分好處。
One task is to redefine workers’ rights for an era of flexibility and service work. The size and novelty of the gig economy is often overstated; taxis and food deliveries existed before Uber and DoorDash. But service-sector employment, especially caregiving, will grow as populations age. There is no place for the snobbish idea that such jobs cannot be fulfilling, nor the related instinct that experimental models of work should be regulated out of existence. Instead governments should modernise the guardrails provided by employment law, offer a universal safety-net and ensure that the economy is strong. If they do, workers will have the confidence and bargaining power to experiment and negotiate for themselves.
其中一項任務是重新定義員工的權利，以適應靈活和服務工作的時代。零工經濟的規模和新穎性往往言過其實；出租車和食品配送在Uber和DoorDash出現之前就已經存在。但隨著人口老齡化，服務業就業，尤其是護理業就業將增長。認為這樣的工作不可能帶來滿足感的勢利觀點，以及實驗性工作模式應該在調控下不復存在的偏見也沒有立足之地。相反，政府應該使就業法提供的保障現代化，提供一張普遍的保障網，并確保經濟強勁發展。如果政府這樣做了，工人們將在實驗性工作以及協商中具備信心和談判能力。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
