按需经济背后的一些力量已存在好几十年。但两大力量正加速这一进程，将按需经济推至越来越多经济的其他领域。
按需经济：自由就职，随请随至
The on-demand economy: Workers on tap
按需经济背后的一些力量已存在好几十年。自上世纪70年代开始，当初亨利·福特推动形成的大企业大工会经济模式已萎缩。制造业职位不是被自动化取代便是外包至海外，大企业已放弃终身聘用制，约5300万美国工人已成为自由职业者。
Some of the forces behind the on-demand economy have been around for decades. Ever since the 1970s the economy that Henry Ford helped create, with big firms and big trade unions, has withered. Manufacturing jobs have been automated out of existence or outsourced abroad, while big companies have abandoned lifetime employment. Some 53m American workers already work as freelances.
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但两大力量正加速这一进程，将按需经济推至越来越多经济的其他领域。第一推力是科技。成本低廉的电脑运算能力意味着一名演员加一台苹果Mac电脑就能制造出媲美好莱坞的视频。复杂任务现在可拆分为若干组成部分，分包给世界各地的专业人士完成，例如电脑编程或撰写诉讼案情摘要的工作。按需经济令社会可开发未被充分利用的资源：所以优步能让人们出租自己的汽车，众包研究公司InnoCentive能让大家出租自己富余的脑力。
Buttwo powerful forces are speeding this up and pushing it into ever more parts of the economy. The first is technology. Cheap computing power means a lone thespian with an Apple Mac can create videos that rival those of Hollywood studios. Complex tasks, such as programming a computer or writing a legal brief, can now be divided into their component parts—and subcontracted to specialists around the world. The on-demand economy allows society to tap into its under-used resources: thus Uber gets people to rent their own cars, and InnoCentive lets them rent their spare brain capacity.
另一巨大推力是变化中的社会习惯。卡尔•马克思说过，世界可分为拥有生产工具的富裕闲人和为他们打工的人。现实倒是越来越像分为“有钱没闲”和“有闲没钱”的两类人。按需经济可让两者互通有无。
The other great force is changing social habits. Karl Marx said that the world would be divided into people who owned the means of production—the idle rich—and people who worked for them. In fact it is increasingly being divided between people who have money but no time and people who have time but no money. The on-demand economy provides a way for these two groups to trade with each other.
摘自《经济学人·商论》文章《自由就职，随请随至》
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