密歇根新闻广播 我们能否逼迫接受救济的人去工作?

Phil Clark is a hard-working 30-year-old who put himself through Eastern Michigan University, and now manages Ray's Red Hots, a hot dog restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor¹ that also operates mobile food carts throughout the state.

Clark's business is doing fine, but he has a problem, which, whether he realizes it or not, is shared by restaurants all over the state, especially in Ann Arbor. He can't find enough workers to hire for jobs, which start at barely more than minimum wage, and max out at $11 an hour, which, if full-time², would be less than $23,000 a year.

Clark thinks he knows why. He believes that the country is full of lazy people on welfare who have no real incentive³ to work. So he wrote a letter to all his elected representatives, which he shared with me. “I'd be willing to wager⁴ that many of these no-show “applicants” are welfare recipients⁶ who are required to prove that they are ‘looking for work,'” he said.

Clark wants us to forget about kicking out illegal immigrants, and “focus on getting our own citizens off their couches to take the jobs that are already there.”

He suggests we do that by requiring able-bodied unemployment/welfare recipients to work for the community at minimum wage, doing things like “pedal exercise bikes to generate electricity for the grid⁷.” He'd also force any applicant⁵ on welfare to report their status to a potential employer, who could report them if they were offered a job and didn't take it.

If that happens, he thinks their benefits should be cut off.

Clark, who told me he was a Libertarian, wanted to know my thoughts. He was polite and respectful and seemed to instinctively⁸ know I might disagree.

Well, I could have said I thought creating a class of stigmatized⁹ serfs forced to do anything for minimum wage was a bad idea. But instead, I told him something that I knew he'd find even more shocking: There aren't any cash welfare payments to able-bodied adults without children in Michigan anymore. In fact, Governor John Engler led the state to terminate what were called “general assistance” welfare payments in 1991, when Clark was four years old.

So why aren't folks queueing up to apply at Ray's Red Hots? For one thing, Ann Arbor isn't a place many low-wage workers can afford to live on what these jobs pay.

Working there might make sense for someone from Ypsilanti, but transportation is often a problem, and a proposal for area-wide mass transit¹⁰ was defeated last November.

If they have a car, parking anywhere on football weekends might cost more than a low-wage worker can make all day. That doesn't mean there might not be answers.

A researcher with the University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions initiative admitted this was an interesting and complex issue. Perhaps making such restaurants better places to work for single mothers would help, or taking a chance on workers who have been in prison.

The solution, he said, might even be as simple as the one capitalists always have been forced to resort to when they can't find enough workers: Pay them more.

Whatever the answer, welfare isn't the problem. But it does seem to be a myth that, unlike welfare itself, hasn't gone away.

1 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

4 wager   

n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌

参考例句：

• They laid a wager on the result of the race.他们以竞赛的结果打赌。
• I made a wager that our team would win.我打赌我们的队会赢。

5 applicant   

n.申请人，求职者，请求者

参考例句：

• He was the hundredth applicant for the job. 他是第100个申请这项工作的人。
• In my estimation, the applicant is well qualified for this job. 据我看, 这位应征者完全具备这项工作的条件。

6 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

8 instinctively   

adv.本能地

参考例句：

• As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 stigmatized   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was stigmatized as an ex-convict. 他遭人污辱，说他给判过刑。 来自辞典例句
• Such a view has been stigmatized as mechanical jurisprudence. 蔑称这种观点为机械法学。 来自辞典例句

10 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。