新世纪大学英语(第二版)学术英语视听说教程第2册Unit3_听力原文

Whether you love it or hate it, work is a major part of most people ' s lives everywhere in tl world. America ns are no excepti on. America ns might compla in about “ blue Mon day, ” whe n the' have to go back to work after the weeke nd, but most of them put a lot of importa nee on their job, not only in terms of money but also in terms of ide ntity .In fact, whe n America ns are in troduced to a new pers on, they almost always ask each other, “ What do you do? ” They are really ask ing, “ What is your job or profession? ” Today, however, we won ' t look at work in terms of what work

means socially or psychologically. Rather, um, we ' re going to take a look at work in the United

States today in three differe nt ways. First, we ' ll take a historical look at work in "America. Uh, we

ll do that by look ing at how things cha nged for the America n worker from the year 1900 to the year of the latest statistics, 2010. That is, from the begi nning of the twen tieth cen tury to rece nt times. Then we ' ll look at how U.S. workers are doing today. And after that, we ' ll take a loo some possible reas ons for the curre nt econo mic situati on. And fin ally, we ' ll look at what peop are saying about what the government should and should not do in order to improve the country ' s economy.

As we look at the changes over the last century or so, we ' re going to use a lot of statistics to describe these changes. First, let ' consider how the type of work people were involved in cha nged. At the beg inning of the twen tieth cen tury, in 1900, about 38 perce nt of the workforce was involved in agriculture; that is, they worked on a farm. By the end of the century, only 3 percent still worked on farms, and by 2010, only about 1 percent worked in agriculture. There was also a large decrease in the number of people working in industry, that is, in making, or manufacturing, things in factories. The number of workers in industry is down from over 30 perce nt in 1900 to just over 22 perce nt in 2010.

While the number of people in agriculture and manufacturing industries went down, the number of people in the services went up. As you may know, services, rather than goods or products, provide other less con crete things that people n eed. A few examples in clude educati on, health care, transportation, tourism, banking, advertising, and legal services. Cafes, restaurants, and fast-food outlets like McDonald ' s are part of the service sector, as are retail sales jobs, driving

taxis, and pump ing gas. The services workforce jumped from 31 perce nt of the workforce in 1900 to 77 perce nt in 2010.

Let ' s recap the numbers: in 1900, 38 percent in agriculture; 31 percent in industry; and 31 percent in services. In 2010, about 1 percent in agriculture; 22 percent in industry; and 77 perce nt in services.

To put things into perspec tive, let ' s compare the United States today to China, where the picture is very differe nt. From your experie nee, would you expect China to have more workers in agriculture or in industry? Well, it may or may not surprise you, but in China, agriculture takes up only 10 perce nt of the workforce, in dustry a huge 47 perce nt, and services 43 perce nt. Figures for the entire world are somewhere between China ' s and the United States ' figures: 6 percent, 31

percent, and 63 percent for agriculture, industry, and serv ices, respectively. Let ' s get back to the

changes in the U.S. workforce in the last century or so.

There are just two more points I wan ted to bring up. First, child labor was not unu sual at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1900, there were 1,750,000 children aged 10 to 15 working full-time in the labor force. This was 6

percent of the labor force. Over the years, child labor laws became much stricter and by 1999, it was illegal for anyone under 16 to work full-time in any of the 50 states. Second, while the number of children in the workforce went down, the nu mber of wome n went up dramatically .In 1900, only 19 perce nt of wome n were employed; in 2010, almost 73 perce nt of wome n were holdi ng dow n jobs.

OK, now let ' s take a look at how tUS. workforce is doing today. First, let me say that for much of the twen tieth cen tury, U.S. workers saw risi ng wages, in creased ben efits like Social Security and health in sura nee, and better work ing con diti ons. However, things are not so rosy for today ' workers. First, let 'look at wages. The U.S. workforce is still considered extremely productive among the industrialized nations of the world, but while its productivity has continued to in crease since the 1970s, wages for the worki ng class have not in creased. Also the nu mber of the un employed has bee n high for some of the past few years.

Let me give you some statistics that may help you un dersta nd the impact of stag nant wages and high un employme nt. Shortly after World War II, a child born in poverty, that is, to a poor

family, had a 50 perce nt cha nee of being in the middle class as an adult. But by 1980, a pers on born in poverty had a 40 perce nt cha nee. In 2012, econo mists told us that his or her cha nee of entering the middle class was only 33 percent.

Fin ally, let ' s take a look at some of the possible reas ons for the curre nt situati on. First of all, agriculture in the Un ited States has become much more mecha ni zed and more efficie nt, so fewer people are n eeded to grow crops and raise ani mals. Most people agree that outsourci ng, that is, sending some U.S. manufacturing and service work overseas to countries like China and India that have lower wages, is one reas on. At the same time, these coun tries manu facture products that they can export to the Un ited States and other coun tries more cheaply tha n U.S. compa nies can manu facture them. Also we should keep in mi nd that some adva nces in tech no logy have eliminated a lot of the jobs that required workers in the past. I ' m thinking of robots in the autc industry and bank ATM machines, for example. In addition to outsourcing and advances in tech no logy, unions, which protect workers ' rights, have become weaker in the past decades. The

result is lower wages and even loss of jobs for people from factory workers to teachers. Some econo mists point out that the America n con sumer has ben efited from outsourc ing and tech no logy in that many products are much cheaper. That is cold comfort to millio ns of workers who have lost their jobs, of course. Let ' s leote a s onsn e mor

Other possible causes for the economic problems may be government policies and legislati on, among them tax cuts and lack of regulati on of bus in esses, especially large corporati ons and finan cial in stituti ons such as ban ks, mortgage compa ni es, and in vestme nt firms. Tax cuts mean the gover nment has less money to provide programs to help people in difficulty or to in vest in educatio n and research. Lack of regulatio n of finan cial in stituti ons has led to their making very risky investments, risky investments that have led to loss of jobs, lost pensions, and loss of homes. It ' s important to note, however, that many people believe that high taxes and too

much regulati on pull dow n the economy.

These issues are very difficult on es, and discussi ons about how to

fix the economycan get very heated. Liberals and conservatives blame each other, and the political

process seems more polarized than ever before.

However, let ' s not forget that the United States has survived many

economic downturns in the p ast and “cautious optimism ” about the U.S. economy seems to be the watchword of the day in n ewspapers and magaz ine articles about the economy at this time. Even the prestigious World

Economic Forum, which met in Davos, Switzerland, in late January of 2012, expressed optimism and cauti on, in other words, “ cautious optimism. ”.