传说在古罗马时期,有一次为运送一根石柱到正在修建中的神庙而需要动用大量劳力。这时,有一位发明家求见韦帕芗(Vespasian)皇帝,建议用自己新发明的机器运输石柱。尽管这个新机器可以大幅减少运输石柱的成本,但皇帝还是果断拒绝了发明家的建议,理由很简单:如果采用了机器运输,那些搬运石柱的民工将会丢掉饭碗。这则轶闻可能是史上最早的关于“技术性失业”的讨论。在此后的近2000年中,或许是 Legend has it that in Roman times there was a time consuming labor to transport a stone column to the temple under construction. At this time, an inventor sought the emperor Vespasian and proposed to transport the pillars with his newly invented machine. Although this new machine can drastically reduce the cost of transporting stone pillars, the emperor decisively rejected the inventor's suggestion for the simple reason that migrant workers carrying stone pillars would lose their jobs if machinery was used. This anecdote may be the earliest history of “technical unemployment.” In the nearly 2000 years since then, perhaps