黄皮书《题源外刊》第三期

小老虎不吹笛

【题源外刊】第三期:加州放Uber的零工经济一条生路

原文期刊：Bloomberg Opinion

原文标题：

California Allows Uber's Gig Economy to Live Another Day

考研英语阅读话题-零工经济

零工经济是指由工作量不多的自由职业者构成的经济领域，利用互联网和移动技术快速匹配供需方，主要包括群体工作和经应用程序接洽的按需工作两种形式。

零工经济一定程度上符合新的就业观：不受上司管制,也不受公司条条框框的束缚,还能同时打多份工。灵活的工作安排让人们实现传统工作岗位给不了的工作和生活平衡,这也吸引了妇女和年长者加入,在面对老龄化挑战的经济体中,更是带来正面的效果。

零工经济正处于快速成长中,而在这一过程中,先进入这一领域的平台方和零工经济从业者都面临诸多挑战,包括相关信用评估、平台规则,同时由于零工经济无法提供稳定的收入,缺乏医疗和福利保障,也被一些专家所诟病。

本文选自2020年11月5日的Bloomberg Opinion专栏。作者由加州投票者通过22号提案为切入点，分析了这一决定背后体现出的人们对城市未来的担忧。超级明星城市与零工服务相伴相生，但受多方面因素影响，超级明星城市已面临危机，此时反对零工服务将使这些城市进一步丧失吸引力，导致高薪者外流，有损城市税收。

脉络:

由热点事件引出话题（第一段）→追溯超级城市的诞生与零工服务的出现（第二、三段）→分析超级城市面临的危机（第四、五、六段）→总结全文（第七段）

Part 1

原文

I  Defying expectations, California voters have approved Proposition 22, which exempts so-called gig economy companies from a state law that requires them to classify their workers as employees. Strangely, it comes at a time when many states and cities are raising their minimum wage and requiring companies to give employees various other benefits. The result might reflect a general anxiety about the future of cities.

II  The phrase “inner city” was synonymous with poor, neglected neighborhoods. But starting in the 1990s, the trend reversed. Many big cities became Meccas for educated workers in newly ascendant knowledge industries like technology, finance and biotech. These cities benefited from what economists call clustering effects. With large concentrations of employees and workers, it was easy to find a job or an employee in these clusters. And everyday interactions between knowledge workers resulted in the spread of useful ideas from company to company.

III  Thanks to clustering, it became difficult for workers to resist the pull of superstar cities. High earners streamed back into urban cores. In due time, apps like Uber and Lyft arose to cater to this new urban workforce.

IV   The superstar-city boom may have ground to a halt. Concerted efforts by local homeowners have hindered most cities in developing new housing, driving up rents to near-intolerable levels and slowing the population influx. Then the Coronavirus pushed knowledge industries to make their workforces remote. That may spark a long-term shift, in which tech and finance companies require only a portion of their workforces to be on-site going forward.

V   This threat of knowledge-worker exodus means that superstar cities’ clustering effects no longer look so invincible. If tech employers can keep only a skeleton workforce in high-cost urban cores and send the rest out to cheaper locales — perhaps to newly densified inner-ring suburbs that offer many of the benefits of city life with fewer of the costs — then it means big cities like San Francisco can no longer rely on inevitable economic forces to keep their tax bases growing. Instead, they may have to once again fight to keep upper-middle-class workers in town, as they did before the 1990s.

VI  The push for higher labor standards is popular and important, but if it ends up pricing Uber, Lyft and other gig services out of reach for the upper middle class, it could make urban life less attractive for that crucial population. Without the ability to take moderately cheap rides around town, many knowledge workers might go remote, leaving cities with lower tax revenues.

VII  Of course, cities could remedy this if they built dense, efficient networks of trains that exist in New York City and in many Asian and European cities. But with the extremely high construction costs and anti-density forces firmly entrenched in local politics, there doesn’t look to be much chance of it. So in lieu of public transit, California voters may have decided to stick with cheap ride-hailing services as a second-best option for keeping taxpayers in town.

Part 2

词汇短语

1.defy：v. (公然)违抗, 反抗

2.synonymous adj. 同义的

3.Mecca n. 众人渴望去的地方，圣地

4.ascendant adj. 影响力越来越大的，越来越受欢迎的

5.cluster n. （人或动物的）群，团，组

6.clustering effect 集群效应

7.exempt：v.免除

8.pull n. 吸引力，诱惑力，魅力

9.stream v. 鱼贯而行，一个接一个地移动

10.in due time 适时地，在适当的时候

11.cater to：满足需要；迎合

Part 3

长难句语法点拨本句主干是California voters have approved Proposition 22.加利福尼亚的投票者给第22号提案投了赞成票.前面用一个分句作定语，表达这件事情是出乎意料的，后面用which引导了一个非限制性定语从句，描述提案的具体内容（允许所谓的零工经济公司免于遵从一项州法），州法后跟that引导的定语从句，描述州法具体内容（要求公司将工作者归为雇员）。

Part 4

写作句型借鉴

Concerted efforts by XX and YY have hindered ……, +结果状语/方式状语 XX 和YY合力阻碍了……，导致……/通过……方式。

原文例句：Concerted efforts by local homeowners have hindered most cities in developing new housing, driving up rents to near-intolerable levels and slowing the population influx. 当地房主合力阻碍了大多数城市开发新住房，这使房租升高到几乎无法容忍的程度，并减缓了人口涌入的速度。

(黄皮书《题源外刊》）