为何人们对职场总是如此悲观(上)

为何人们对职场总是如此悲观(上)

Bartleby - 'Twas ever thus

巴托比——从来都是这样

Why people are always so gloomy about the world of work

为何人们对职场总是如此悲观

The notion that the modern economy lacks “good jobs” is as uncontroversial as saying that Lionel Messi is good at football.

现代经济缺乏“好工作”的观点，就像莱昂内尔·梅西擅长足球的说法一样毫无争议。

Pundits decry the disappearance of the steady positions of yesteryear, where people did a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.

权威人士谴责过去那种稳定的工作岗位的消失，在那种岗位上，人们公平地做一天工作拿一天工资。

“Where have all the good jobs gone?”, wonders one recent book, while another talks about “the rise of polarised and precarious employment systems”.

最近的一本新书中问道：“好工作都哪儿去了?”，而另一本书则谈到了“两极分化和不稳定的就业体系的兴起”。

President Joe Biden takes after Donald Trump in promising to bring good jobs “back”.

美国总统乔·拜登接替了唐纳德·特朗普，承诺把好的就业机会“找回来”。

But what if the whole debate rests on shaky foundations?

但是，如果整个辩论都建立在不可靠的基础上呢?

It certainly lacks historical awareness.

这当然是缺乏历史意识的。

Compare the current discussion with the one during America’s postwar boom.

将当前的讨论与美国战后繁荣时期的讨论进行比较。

Few people back then believed that they were living in a golden age of labour.

当时很少有人相信他们生活在劳动的黄金时代。

Commentators were instead full of angst, worrying about the “blue-collar blues”.

相反，评论家们却充满了焦虑，担心“蓝领忧郁”。

They said that unionised factory jobs—the very sort that today’s politicians yearn to restore—consisted of repetitive, dangerous work which involved all brawn and no brain.

他们说，有工会的工厂里的工作——正是今天的政客们渴望恢复的那种——是由重复的、危险的工作组成的，只需要体力，不需要脑力。

Others fretted over pay.

其他人则为工资烦恼。

Workers “are getting increasingly frustrated by a system they think is not giving them a satisfactory return for their labours”, proclaimed a high-ranking official at America’s Department of Labour in 1970.

1970年，美国劳工部的一位高级官员宣称，工人们“对一个他们认为不能给他们的劳动带来满意回报的体系越来越感到沮丧”。

In fact the notion that the world of work is in decay is as old as capitalism itself.

事实上，“职场正在衰落”的观念与资本主义本身一样古老。

Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, a Swiss writer who inspired Karl Marx, said that factories would turn people into drones.

启发了卡尔·马克思的瑞士作家让·查尔斯·莱昂纳德·德·西斯蒙迪曾说过，工厂会让人变成懒汉。

John Stuart Mill worried in the mid-19th century that the rise of capitalism would provoke social decay.

约翰·斯图尔特·密尔在19世纪中叶曾担心，资本主义的崛起会引发社会衰退。

People would focus on nothing other than earning money, he feared, turning them into dullards (just look at Americans, he warned).

他担心，人们除了赚钱以外什么都不关心，这会让他们变成傻瓜（看看美国人就知道了，他警告说）。

The rise of big business and white-collar work in America provoked a new set of anxieties.

美国大企业和白领工作的兴起引发了一系列新的焦虑。

It was soon predicted that the self-made men of yore would be replaced by effete company drones who did what they were told.

很快就有人预言，昔日靠自己奋斗成功的人将被那些对衰弱的公司唯命是从的懒汉所取代。

This is not the only reason to question today’s pessimistic narrative.

这并不是质疑当今悲观论调的唯一理由。

By any reasonable standard work is better today than it was.

以任何合理的标准衡量，今天的工作都比过去要好。

Pay is higher, working hours are shorter and industrial accidents rarer.

工资更高，工作时间更短，工伤事故也更少。