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  3. To what extent are the unemployed failing in their duty to society to work,

To what extent are the unemployed failing in their duty to society to work,

游客2025-04-27  33
问题     To what extent are the unemployed failing in their duty to society to work, and how far has the State an obligation to ensure that they have work to do?
    It is by now increasingly recognized that workers may be thrown out of work by industrial forces beyond their control, and that the unemployed are in some sense paying the price of the economic progress of the community.  But concern with unemployment and the unemployed changes sharply. The issues of duty and responsibility were re-opened and made active by the unemployment scare of 1971--1972.  Rising unemployment and increased sums paid out in benefits to the workless had reawakened controversies which had been inactive during most of the period of fuller employment since the war ended the Depression. It looked as though in future there would again be too little work to go round, so there were arguments about how to produce more work, how the available work should be shared out, and who was responsible for unemployment and the unemployed.
    In 1972 there were critics who said that the State’s action in allowing unemployment to rise was a barrier of faith, a breaking of the social contract between society and the worker. Yet the main contribution by employers to unemployment--such as laying off workers in order to introduce technological changes and maximize profit-tended to be ignored.  And it was the unemployed who were accused of failing to honor the social contract, by not fulfilling their duty to society to work. In spite of general concern at the scale of the unemployment statistics when the unemployed were considered as individuals they tended to attract scorn and threats of punishment. Their capacities and motivation as workers and their values as members of society became suspect. Of all the myths of the Welfare State, stories of the workshy and stealing have been the least well founded on evidence, yet they have proved the most persistent. The unemployed were accused of being responsible for their own workless condition, and doubts were expressed about the State’s obligation either to provide them with the security of work or to support them through social security.
    Underlying the arguments about unemployment and the unemployed is a basic disagreement about the nature and meaning of work in society. To what extent can or should work be regarded as a service, not only performed by the worker for society but also made secure for the worker by the State, and subsidized if necessary? And apart from cash are there social pressures and satisfactions which cause individuals to seek and keep work, so that the workless need work rather than just cash?  [br] In the 1971--1972 crisis ______.
选项 A、the State and the employers were equally to blame
B、the unemployed did not fulfill their social duty to find work
C、the role played by the employers in creating unemployment was not recognized
D、the State was guilty of breaking the social contract by letting unemployment increase
答案 A
解析 在1971—1972年的危机中，国家和雇主均应受到责备。作者在第三段开头说，1972年，有些批评家说，国家允许失业率上升对诚信造成了障碍，破坏了社会和工人之间的社会契约。然而，雇主们造成失业的主要原因(如解雇工人以采用技术变革并使利润最大化)往往被忽视了。
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