首页
登录
职称英语
[originaltext] Free-market capitalism hasn’t freed us; it has trapped us. It’
[originaltext] Free-market capitalism hasn’t freed us; it has trapped us. It’
游客
2024-03-11
52
管理
问题
Free-market capitalism hasn’t freed us; it has trapped us. It’s imperative for us to embrace a workplace revolution. We are unlikely to spend our last moments regretting that we didn’t spend enough of our lives slaving away at work. We may instead find ourselves feeling guilty about the time we didn’t spend watching our children grow, or with our loved ones, or travelling, or on the cultural or leisure pursuits that bring us happiness. Unfortunately, the average full-time employee in the world works 42 hours a week— well over a third of the time we’re awake. Some of our all too precious time is being stolen: office workers do around two billion hours of unpaid overtime each year. So it’s extremely welcome that some government coalitions have started looking into potentially cutting the working week to four days.
The champions of free-market capitalism promised their way of life would bring us freedom. But it wasn’t freedom at all: from the lack of secure, affordable housing to growing job insecurity and rising personal debt, the individual is trapped. Nine decades ago, leading economists predicted that technological advances and rising productivity would mean that we’d be working a 15-hour week by now: that target has been somewhat missed.
Here is the most malignant threat to our personal freedom, particularly as the balance of power in the workplace has been shifted so dramatically from worker to boss. A huge portion of our lives involves the surrender of our freedom and personal autonomy. It’s time in which we are directed by the needs and desires of others, and denied the right to make our own choices. That’s bad for us: it’s hardly surprising that over half a million workers suffer from work-related mental health conditions each year, or that 15.4 million working days were lost to work-related stress last year, a jump of nearly a quarter.
Yes, there are those who, far from being overworked, actually seek more hours. But a shorter working week would enable us to redistribute hours from the overworked to the underworked. We need to look at ways of cutting the working week without slashing living standards: after all, the world’s workers have already suffered the worst deduction in wages since the early 1800s. And cutting the working week would be conducive to the individual, giving millions of workers more time to spend as they see fit.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19. What do people often feel guilty about according to the speaker?
20. What did leading economists predict 90 years ago?
21. What is the result of denying workers’ right to make their own choices?
选项
A、Loss of workers’ personal dignity.
B、Deprivation of workers’ creativity.
C、Deterioration of workers’ mental health.
D、Unequal distribution of working hours.
答案
C
解析
事实细节题。讲座中提到,工人不能自己做决定是非常糟糕的,每年有50多万工人患有与工作相关的精神疾病。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3525663.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]Thefocusoftoday’sclassisonanimportantelementinthed
[originaltext]So,nowweareintheroomwithnaiveart,producedintheUni
[originaltext]Goodevening,IamSteveJohnsonandIrepresenttheAmerican
[originaltext]Goodevening,IamSteveJohnsonandIrepresenttheAmerican
[originaltext]SummermeansinternshipsforthousandsofAmericancollegestu
[originaltext]SummermeansinternshipsforthousandsofAmericancollegestu
[originaltext]SummermeansinternshipsforthousandsofAmericancollegestu
[originaltext]Welcome,everybody,tothelovelyhouseandgardensofRosewoo
[originaltext]Welcome,everybody,tothelovelyhouseandgardensofRosewoo
[originaltext]W:Wu,doyouhavetimetotellmemoreaboutthemultimediateac
随机试题
Thousandsofteachersattheelementary,secondary,andcollegelevelscantes
钢筋混凝土高层建筑结构的最大适用高度分为A级和B级,对两个级别的主要区别,下列中
以下正确的描述是()A.烤瓷金属全冠应选择高熔性瓷粉 B.金属膨胀系数应
急性乳腺炎形成脓肿后行切开引流时,错误的是()A.除乳晕下脓肿外,切口应做放
患儿,男,22个月,出生体重较正常低,现前囟仍未闭合,毛发稀疏,肌肤不温,用药宜
UCITS基金持有人是以()进行申购和赎回。A.基金单位净值 B.基金累计份
城市化率=( )。A:农业人口/非农业人口 B:乡村人口/总人口 C:乡村
以下不属于组织结构分析内容的是()。A.各种职能的性质及类别 B.员工与岗位
针对市场风险的压力情景包括()。A.利率重新定价 B.基准利率不同步以及收益
根据《房屋建筑与装饰工程工程量计算规范》(GB50854-2013),现浇混凝
最新回复
(
0
)