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  3. How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy ques

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy ques

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问题     How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways,our so- cial statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing afflu- ence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mit- igated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the over- whelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.
    Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families re- main in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.
    As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be coun- tered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one of their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.
Which of the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author?
选项 A、Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.
B、A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.
C、New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.
D、Consideration should be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.
E、The labor force should be restructured so that it corresponds to the range of job vacancies.
答案C
解析 哪一建议最好地反映了作者的论点?A．包括多种内容的新计划应被用来减少失业。文中第一段指出，失业问题有时不像想得那么严重。作者不会总同意这种说法。B．那些认为失业比经济所能控制范围要严重的人和持相反论点的人应折衷一下。此两种观点即由文中高估或低估失业影响两种错误统计而来，但两个错误无需折衷，都是统计失误造成的，改进统计方法就可以了。C．正确。新的统计标准应该被用来衡量失业和收入过少的职业。这从最后一句作者结论性质的话中可以推出。D．应考虑一下统计法可能会成为他们想要衡量的现象的原因之一。(即统计法本身造成了贫困。)失业统计的标准(指数)应改变，但统计法本身作为一种研究方法并没有被作者否定。E．劳动队伍应重组，以使之和大量空闲职位相应。无。
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