读过《The Vanishing American Corporation》 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Careers turn to jobs and jobs turn to tasks...哀悼了美国大公司的衰亡，以及给个人，社会和国家带来的变化。本质上说，目前发生的变化，是每次技术革命都会发生的对于旧的经济制度和生产体系的冲击。上次大变局发生在一百年前，早已成为遥远的回忆。当下的切肤之痛让当代人觉得天崩地裂，惶惶不可终日。从历史尺度上看，却是再正常不过的“变革阵痛”。
Book
The Vanishing American Corporation Douban
author:
Gerald F. Davis
publishing house:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
2016
It may be hard to believe in an era of Walmart, Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, but corporations are on the decline. The number of American companies listed on the stock market dropped by half between 1996 and 2012. In recent years we've seen some of the most storied corporations go bankrupt (General Motors, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak) or disappear entirely (Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Borders).
Gerald Davis argues this is a root cause of the income inequality and social instability we face today. Corporations were once an integral part of building the middle class. He points out that in their heyday they offered millions of people lifetime employment, a stable career path, health insurance, and retirement pensions. They were like small private welfare states.
The businesses that are replacing them will not fill the same role. For one thing, they employ far fewer people the combined global workforces of Facebook, Yelp, Zynga, LinkedIn, Zillow, Tableau, Zulily, and Box are smaller than the number of people who lost their jobs when Circuit City was liquidated in 2009. And in the sharing economy, companies have no obligation to most of the people who work for them at the end of 2014 Uber had over 160,000 driver-partners in the United States but recognized only about 2,000 people as actual employees.
Davis tracks the rise of the large American corporation and the economic, social, and technological developments that have led to its decline. The future could see either increasing economic polarization, as careers turn into jobs and jobs turn into tasks, or a more democratic economy built from the grass roots. It's up to us.
Gerald Davis argues this is a root cause of the income inequality and social instability we face today. Corporations were once an integral part of building the middle class. He points out that in their heyday they offered millions of people lifetime employment, a stable career path, health insurance, and retirement pensions. They were like small private welfare states.
The businesses that are replacing them will not fill the same role. For one thing, they employ far fewer people the combined global workforces of Facebook, Yelp, Zynga, LinkedIn, Zillow, Tableau, Zulily, and Box are smaller than the number of people who lost their jobs when Circuit City was liquidated in 2009. And in the sharing economy, companies have no obligation to most of the people who work for them at the end of 2014 Uber had over 160,000 driver-partners in the United States but recognized only about 2,000 people as actual employees.
Davis tracks the rise of the large American corporation and the economic, social, and technological developments that have led to its decline. The future could see either increasing economic polarization, as careers turn into jobs and jobs turn into tasks, or a more democratic economy built from the grass roots. It's up to us.