读书碎片 | 为什么女权主义应当从争取“给家务劳动发工资”转向争取“全民基本收入(UBI)”?

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IPFS
“工作”不应是定义人类价值和权利的唯一标准。

书籍:The Problem with Work
作者:Kathi Weeks
章节:第3章:Working Demands: From Wages for Housework to Basic Income

读书碎片 #003
以下内容来自阅读中的随手记录,思想在这里被暂时放下。

点击阅读本书书评:我们从未下班:社会再生产、女性与反工作的政治想象

为什么女权主义应当从争取“给家务劳动发工资”转向争取“全民基本收入(UBI)”?

既然“家务劳动有偿化”有局限(可能固化性别分工),那我们现在要争取的应该是什么?

Weeks给出的答案是无条件基本收入(Unconditional Basic Income, UBI)。

Weeks眼中的UBI是什么样的?

Weeks强调,她所主张的基本收入必须具备三个硬性条件,否则就只是修补资本主义的补丁:

无条件性(Unconditional):不论你是否工作、是否有意愿工作,也不论你的家庭状况如何,只要你是社会成员,就能拿钱。绝不能像现在的福利制度那样要求受助者去参加培训或接受某种低薪工作(workfare)。

普遍性(Universal):发给每个人,而不是只发给穷人。这消除了领取福利的耻辱感,也避免了国家的监视和家访。

充足性(Adequate):金额必须足够维持生活(livable)。如果金额太低(仅仅作为工资补贴),它反而会变成变相补贴黑心老板(允许他们发低工资)。只有金额足够高,才能给人们真正退出雇佣劳动市场的自由。

为什么要从“家务工资”转向“基本收入”?

Weeks虽然高度赞赏70年代的“家务劳动有偿化”运动,但她认为UBI是该运动在当下的最佳继承者。

“家务工资”可能会把女性进一步锁在家庭主妇的角色里。UBI是性别中立的,它不预设谁该做家务,这反而给了女性(和男性)重新协商家庭分工的经济底气。

UBI也能适应后福特主义的社会。在今天,生产已经扩散到整个社会(“社会工厂”的概念)。我们在刷社交媒体、建立人际关系、甚至在消费时,都在为资本创造价值。既然价值创造是全社会的,那么基于“具体工作”发工资就过时了,应该基于“社会成员身份”发收入。

UBI作为一种“批判视角”

提出UBI这个诉求,不仅仅是为了钱,更是为了让我们看清现有制度的荒谬。

既然很多对社会至关重要的劳动(如照护、艺术创作、社区建设)都没有工资,那么“工资”本身就是一种武断的分配机制。UBI承认所有形式的贡献(无论是否被定义为工作)。

UBI还能切断“工作”与“生存”的纽带。现有的社会契约是“不劳动者不得食”。UBI挑战了这个核心假设,主张生存权不应与就业挂钩。

UBI还能打破家庭的经济强制。很多人维持不幸的婚姻或家庭关系是为了生存。UBI是一种让收入个人化的手段,使个体不再被迫依附于家庭或伴侣。

Weeks最看重UBI的地方在于它带来的权力转移,让人们拥有拒绝的权力,也就是俗称的“F**k-off money”。如果有了基本收入,工人就不必被迫接受低薪、恶劣、无尊严的工作。这极大地提升了劳工阶级的谈判地位。

传统的左派往往强调牺牲和艰苦奋斗。Weeks通过UBI提出了一种基于欲望的政治:我们要更多的钱、更多的时间,但做更少的工作。这是一种快乐的、扩张性的政治。

UBI买回了时间,让人们有空闲去思考:如果不为了生存而工作,我想过什么样的生活?这种思考本身就是构建新主体(new subjectivities)的过程。

最激进的一点是,传统的福利理由往往是“因为你为社会做了贡献(生产/劳动),所以你值得回报/工资”。Weeks建议改变这个逻辑:UBI不是对生产的奖励,而是对生活的支持。

Weeks提出了“生活对抗工作(Life against Work)”这个概念,我们要将资源从资本积累的循环中抽离出来,投入到生活的再生产中。

UBI不是为了让你更好地工作。很多UBI支持者(如硅谷大佬)说UBI是为了让人在自动化时代即使失业也能消费,或者让人更有安全感地去创业。

Weeks反对这种功能主义逻辑。她认为UBI是为了让我们有能力不工作,去发展工作之外的、非生产性的、真正的“生活”。

UBI既是务实的(解决了就业不稳定的问题),也是乌托邦的(指向了一个不再以工作为中心的未来)。UBI不仅在物质上为人们提供了退路,更在精神上宣告了“工作”不再是定义人类价值和权利的唯一标准。

The level of income considered 'basic' is the first and perhaps most significant point of contention... The income provided should be large enough to ensure that waged work would be less a necessity than a choice (see McKay 2001, 99). ... At a level adequate to live on—as a basic livable income—it would represent a more substantial rupture with the current terms of the work society.

被视为“基本”的收入水平是第一个,也许是最重要的争议点……提供的收入应该足够高,以确保雇佣劳动不再是一种必然,而更多是一种选择……在一个足以维持生计的水平上——作为基本的可维持生活的收入——它将代表与当前工作社会条款更实质性的决裂。

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As an alternative possibility, a citizen’s income or social wage that is paid unconditionally is preferable to a participation income because of the way it more thoroughly separates income from work (Pateman 2003; McKay 2001).

作为一种替代可能性,无条件支付的公民收入或社会工资优于参与性收入(注:指要求参与某种劳动才能获得的收入),因为它能更彻底地将收入与工作分离开来。

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...it would be distributed to individuals irrespective of family membership or household form (McKay and Vanevery 2000, 281). ... By proposing to award the income universally to individuals... basic income not only recognizes but offers a response to the inability of both the wage system and the institution of the family to serve as reliable mechanisms of income distribution.

……它将分发给个人,而不论其家庭成员身份或家庭形式如何。……通过提议将收入普遍地授予个人……基本收入不仅承认并回应了工资制度和家庭制度都无法作为可靠的收入分配机制这一事实。

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What makes this demand a worthy successor to the 1970s demand for wages for housework has to do with its advantages as a perspective and provocation, but also as a reform. ... In terms of the two critiques of the demand for wages for housework discussed above—namely, that the gender division of labor would be further entrenched by the payment of this wage to housewives... the demand for basic income is a more viable alternative.

使得这一诉求成为1970年代“家务劳动有偿化”诉求的合格继承者的原因,在于它作为一种视角和挑衅,以及作为一种改革的优势。……针对上述对家务劳动工资诉求的两点批评——即向家庭主妇支付这种工资会进一步固化性别分工……基本收入的诉求是一个更可行的替代方案。

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The demand for basic income extends the insight of the wages for housework perspective that an individual’s income depends on a network of social labor and cooperation broader than the individual wage relation (see Robeyns 2001, 84–85). ...when the productivity of our practices so often exceeds the scope of what is included in the wage relation that what one does or does not get paid for appears ever more random... a guaranteed basic level of revenue offers a more rational way to allocate income.

基本收入的诉求扩展了“家务劳动有偿化”视角的洞见,即个人的收入取决于一个比个人雇佣关系更广泛的社会劳动和协作网络。

……当我们实践的生产力经常超出工资关系所包含的范围,以至于一个人做的事是否得到报酬显得越来越随机时……有保障的基本收入水平提供了一种更理性的收入分配方式。

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The demand for basic income’s proposal to break the link between work and income highlights the arbitrariness of which practices are waged and which are not. ...basic income entails, as Ailsa McKay and Jo Vanevery observe, 'an implicit recognition that all citizens contribute to society in a variety of ways,' including contributions 'that may or may not have monetary value or even be measurable' (2000, 281).

基本收入关于打破工作与收入联系的提议,凸显了哪些实践是有薪的、哪些是无薪的这一现状的武断性。

……正如Ailsa McKay和Jo Vanevery所观察到的,基本收入意味着“隐含地承认所有公民都以各种方式为社会做出贡献”,包括那些“可能具有或不具有货币价值,甚至无法衡量”的贡献。

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As an effort to secure an income independent of wages, the demand for basic income registers the refusal of an ethics that enforces dependency either on marriage or the wage relation... By challenging the link between individual production and consumption, by refusing the notion that waged work is the only legitimate means of access to even a minimal standard of living, the demand for basic income points in the direction of a life no longer subordinate to work.

作为一种确立独立于工资之外的收入的努力,基本收入的诉求标志着对一种强制依赖婚姻或雇佣关系的伦理的拒绝……

通过挑战个人生产与消费之间的联系,通过拒绝“雇佣劳动是获得哪怕最低生活标准的唯一合法手段”这一观念,基本收入的诉求指向了一种不再从属于工作的生活方向。

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In this way, the demand refuses to privilege either work or family as institutions on which an individual must depend if he or she is to secure the necessary means to support a life. ...it can also be understood as an invocation of the possibility of freedom. ... freedom as the time and space for invention. Basic income can be demanded as a way to gain some measure of distance and separation from the wage relation...

通过这种方式,该诉求拒绝赋予工作或家庭特权,不再将它们视为个人为获得维持生活必要手段而必须依赖的制度。

……它也可以被理解为对自由可能性的调用。……自由即创造的时间和空间。基本收入可以作为一种获得与工资关系保持一定距离和分离的手段而被提出……

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The income provided should be large enough to ensure that waged work would be less a necessity than a choice... [and] provide a better position from which to negotiate more favorable terms of employment.

提供的收入应该足够多,以确保雇佣劳动不再是必须,而是一种选择……[并]提供一个更好的地位,以便谈判更优惠的就业条款。

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But perhaps the most provocative aspect of the demand for basic income today is its anti-asceticism. ... Rather than preach the ethics of thrift and savings... the demand for basic income invites the expansion of our needs and desires. ... the demand is excessive, defying what are proclaimed to be reasonable limits on what we should want and demand.

但也许今天基本收入诉求最具挑衅性的一面是它的反禁欲主义。……基本收入的诉求不是宣扬节俭和储蓄的伦理……而是邀请我们扩张我们的需求和欲望。……这个诉求是过度的,它挑战了那些被宣称为我们应该想要什么和要求什么的合理界限。

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The demand for basic income could also be an occasion to contemplate the shape of a life beyond work... ...it is a process of constituting a new subject with the desires for and the power to make further demands.

基本收入的诉求也可以成为一个思考工作之外的生活形态的契机……

……它是一个构建新主体的过程,这个主体拥有提出进一步诉求的欲望和权力。

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So I want to consider an alternative: what if basic income were to be seen as income not for the common production of value, but for the common reproduction of life? ...demanding not income for the production that is necessary to sustain social worlds, but income to sustain the social worlds necessary for, among other things, production. More specifically, I want to explore the political project of “life against work” as a general rubric within which to frame... the demands for basic income and shorter hours.

因此我想考虑另一种选择:如果基本收入不被视为对共同生产价值的收入,而是对共同再生产生命(生活)的收入,会怎样?

……要求的不是为了维持社会世界所必需的生产而获得的收入,而是为了维持那些(包括生产在内的活动所必需的)社会世界而获得的收入。

具体来说,我想探索“生活对抗工作”的政治项目,作为一个总体框架,在此框架内构建……基本收入和缩短工时的诉求。

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The demand for basic income poses a critique but also provides a remedy: reducing our dependence on work. By challenging the link between individual production and consumption, by refusing the notion that waged work is the only legitimate means of access to even a minimal standard of living, the demand for basic income points in the direction of a life no longer subordinate to work.

基本收入的诉求提出了一种批判,但也提供了一种补救措施:减少我们对工作的依赖。

通过挑战个人生产与消费之间的联系,通过拒绝“雇佣劳动是获得哪怕最低生活标准的唯一合法手段”这一观念,基本收入的诉求指向了一种不再从属于工作的生活方向。

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The authors of 'The Post-Work Manifesto' argue that 'what has been called utopian in the past must now be recognized as a practical necessity' (Aronowitz et al. 1998, 69). By pursuing a more substantial alteration of the wage relation, the demand for basic income attempts to address... the realities of post-Fordist work, to offer a measure of security in an economy of precariousness.

《后工作宣言》的作者们认为,“过去被称为乌托邦的东西,现在必须被承认为一种实际的必要性”。通过追求对工资关系的更实质性改变,基本收入的诉求试图解决……后福特主义工作的现实,在不稳定的经济中提供一定程度的安全感。


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