每天一篇经济学人 | In defence of commuting 为通...

Americans are “always in a hurry”, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America”, his opus published in 1835. Until the covid-19 pandemic, nowhere was this more evident in recent decades than in packed trains at peak times as people commuted to work. 

【1】opus 作品；作品集

亚历西斯·德·托克维尔在其1835年出版的著作《论美国的民主》中写道，美国人“总是匆匆忙忙”。在covid-19大流行之前的近几十年来，这一点从人们上班的高峰期拥挤的火车中可以清晰展现。

Almost 75% of professionals in America say the journey is what they dread most about going back to the office. Working remotely a few days a week is here to stay. Rush-hour traffic, overcrowded trains and transport strikes (like those on London’s tube in the past week) all argue for working from home. Across America and Europe rising fares eat into people’s salaries. The outcry for lower carbon emissions adds additional weight to the argument for millions of employees not undertaking unnecessary journeys. In some emerging cities, getting to work involves honks and epic gridlock as well as accidents.

美国近75%的职场人士表示，这段路程是他们重返办公室时最害怕的。每周远程工作几天是常事。高峰时段的交通、拥挤的火车和交通罢工(就像上周发生在伦敦地铁上的罢工)都在支持远程办公。在美国和欧洲，不断上涨的票价会消耗人们的工资。呼吁降低碳排放的呼声，为数百万员工不进行不必要的路程的理由增加了额外的“分量”。在一些新兴城市，上班路上经常会听到喇叭声、遇到严重的交通堵塞以及交通事故。

Every now and again, most people will nevertheless need to make the trip to the office and back. Whether you are walking, cycling, on a Vespa, taking the bus, the tram or the subway, the range of options is wide, and rich in texture and colour. Some people will insist that no commute is ever worth the trouble. With the right attitude, though, it does not have to feel like temporary brain damage. This guest Bartleby, who takes the underground to The Economist’s London office three times a week, finds it both useful and oddly fulfilling. 

尽管如此，大多数人还是时不时地需要往返于办公室之间。无论你是步行、骑自行车、骑踏板车、乘公共汽车、有轨电车还是地铁，选择的范围都很广，而且质地和颜色都很丰富。有些人会坚持认为，任何通勤都是不值得的。但是，只要有正确的态度，它就不会让人感觉像是暂时性的脑损伤。这位名叫巴托比的嘉宾每周坐三次地铁去《经济学人》的伦敦办公室，他发现乘地铁既有用，又有一种奇怪的满足感。

Just how useful and fulfilling will depend on what exactly your commute looks like. But unless you hop into your car on your driveway and hop out at your company car park, it will involve at least some physical activity. If you are cycling, or just picking up your walking pace to catch that bus or train, you combine being outdoors with an element of struggle—a healthy amount of which can be invigorating, not draining. And if you don’t catch it, don’t worry. Your hours have almost certainly become more flexible than the previous nine-to-five routine. That next train may anyway be less like a cattle car.

究竟有多有用、有多满足，将取决于你通勤的具体情况。但是，除非你在自家车道上上车，或者在公司停车场下车，否则至少要进行一些体育活动。如果你正在骑自行车，或者只是加快你的步行速度去赶公共汽车或火车，你将户外活动与少量奋斗结合在一起，适量的运动可以使你精力充沛，而不是精疲力竭。如果你没赶上，也别担心。你的工作时间肯定比以前朝九晚五的工作时间更灵活了。无论如何，下一列火车可能没那么像一辆运畜车。

Like all dislocations, even regular and predictable ones, the daily commute is also a time and place where you are more exposed to physical and psychological elements from which you are shielded at home or at work. In “Falling in Love” a film released in 1984, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro meet as they commute on the same train month after month from the suburbs to New York City, until, one day, they embark on an emotional affair. The plot is banal and the dialogue dim but the idea that a journey injects a sense of risk and possibility is both deep and real.

每天的通勤就像所有的混乱一样，是常规且可预测的混乱，它也是一个时间和地点，在那里你更能了解自己的生理和心理因素，而这是你在家里或工作中被屏蔽掉的东西。在1984年上映的电影《坠入爱河》中，梅丽尔·斯特里普和罗伯特·德尼罗月复一月地从郊区乘同一列火车前往纽约，两人相遇，直到有一天，他们开始了一段感情。故事情节平淡无奇，对话模糊，但路程会给人带来风险和可能性的想法是深刻而真实的。

Public transport, which a lot of commuting involves, remains the most democratic way of going to work. As chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, Paul Volcker travelled coach class on the shuttle from New York to Washington, dc, and took the bus in both cities. As a public servant embodying civic duty, the central banker was known for his financial discipline in personal affairs, as well as monetary policy. At a time when greed was good, and limos, helicopters and private jets were great, frugality from “the custodian of the nation’s money” sent a strong message. As companies bracing for a recession tighten their belts, Volcker’s example seems particularly relevant.

【1】limos 豪华轿车

公共交通仍然是最平等的上班方式，很多通勤都涉及到公共交通。保罗•沃尔克在1979年至1987年担任美联储主席期间，他乘坐经济舱从纽约前往华盛顿特区，在两个城市内部都是搭乘公交车。作为一名体现公民义务的公务员，这位央行行长以其在私事和货币政策方面的财务纪律而闻名。在那个贪婪是好事，豪华轿车、直升机和私人飞机是伟大的时代，“国家资金的保管人”的节俭发出了强烈的信号。在企业为应对经济衰退勒紧裤腰带之际，沃尔克的例子似乎尤其贴切。

Perhaps most important of all in an era of remote work, the commute helps mark out the mental distance between home and the office, which disappears when the kitchen table has become your work station. It offers a useful buffer—a liminal space separating the personal and the professional.

也许最重要的是，在远程工作的时代，通勤有助于划定家与办公室之间的心理距离，而当厨房的桌子成为你的办公地时，这种距离就消失了。通勤提供了一个有用的缓冲，一个分隔个人和专业的阈限空间。

Getting ready to leave for work in the morning involves an element of planning—sometimes even anticipation. Stepping out of your home, and your comfort zone, you feel more alive by default. When walking to the train station, purpose is externalised and compressed. In the afternoon, you can use that time as a curtain to separate the day from the rest of the evening, probe into those pieces of inner life that nag and still feel connected to the world. Bartleby lets her thoughts meander while on the move. Time wasted is time gained.

早上准备去上班涉及到规划，有时甚至是期待。走出你的家，走出你的舒适区，你会自然而然地感到更有活力。当步行去火车站时，目的被具体化和压缩了。在下午，你可以用这段时间作为一个幕布，把白天和晚上的其他时间分开，探索那些烦人的、仍然感觉与世界相连的内心生活。在旅途中，巴托比让她自己的思绪自由驰骋。浪费的时间就是收获的时间。

Few people relish holing up in one place for ever. Working remotely from a secluded village in Italy may sound like a treat for a while. Yet like all sameness, it soon begins to feel stifling. In a modern world where de Tocqueville’s words ring true of everyone everywhere, it may seem strange to add to the hurriedness. But not if you think of the commute as punctuation in the larger tale.

【1】hole up 躲藏

【2】sameness 千篇一律

很少有人喜欢永远躲在一个地方。在意大利一个与世隔绝的村庄远程工作一段时间听起来可能是一种享受。然而，就像所有的千篇一律一样，它很快就开始让人感到窒息。在当今世界，德·托克维尔的这句话在每个地方都适用，加上“匆忙”似乎有些奇怪。但如果你认为通勤是更大故事中的转折，那就不是这样了。