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自从英国纺织工业城市诺丁汉的工人们破坏了威胁他们生计的、新发明的织机以来,关于技术发展对就业的影响问题已经讨论了168年之久。工厂主当然不同意这一点。当时有许多经济学家支持工厂主的意见,并且彻底“证明”所谓技术发展引起失业的看法只不过是一种错觉。可是,也有一些著名的经济学家不赞成工厂主的意见,例如《论自由》的作者约翰·穆勒就承认:采用机器、增加机器数量或提高机器效率,确实都会减少对劳动力的总需求量。
The effects of technology development on employment have been discussed for 168 years since Nottingham’s workers in the British textile industrial city have destroyed newly invented looms that threaten their livelihoods. Of course, factory owners do not agree with this. At that time, many economists supported the opinions of the factory owners and thoroughly “proved” that the so-called technological development caused unemployment. This is only an illusion. However, some well-known economists do not agree with factory owners. For example, John Muller, author of “On Freedom,” admits that adopting machinery, increasing the number of machines, or increasing machine efficiency will all reduce the total demand for labor .