Recently, the “Engels Pause” has attracted attention. This concept describes the phenomenon of long-term stagnation in worker wages despite the leaps in productivity during the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Now, entering the era of artificial intelligence, how to avoid excessive employment replacement in the process of technological revolution, let technological dividends be shared by all people, and prevent the "Engels Pause" in the AI era has become a realistic issue.
On October 22, China News Network's "Sanlihe" studio held a seminar with the theme of "Beyond the 'Engels Pause': Technological Revolution and Shared Development".
Facing the changes brought about by AI, experts and scholars are reviewing history and analyzing reality from different perspectives to find a way out that balances efficiency and fairness.
Su Jian, a professor at the School of Economics at Peking University and director of the National Economic Research Center, believes that technological progress can promote employment in the long run. The historical experience of sewing machines and computers shows that technological cost reduction creates new demands and new industries, and technology and labor force will adapt in both directions. On the one hand, policies must expand new demands and carry out labor retraining; on the other hand, they must optimize the business environment and reduce the trial and error costs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Technology has both benefits and impacts. How to grasp the scale of technology application is a key issue at the governance level.
Wei Qijia, a researcher at the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that to overcome the "Engels pause", we must adhere to the idea of technology being good and protecting the rule of law. Technology itself is neutral, and the key lies in application orientation. We should distinguish between long-term development trends and short-term transformation pains, without exaggerating the impact or avoiding contradictions. It is necessary to classify and screen new technology implementation scenarios, and adjust unnecessary substitutions that lack social welfare gains. Governance should take into account both the guidance of technology sources and the improvement of supporting systems, respect the differences in development stages of enterprises, and give full play to the role of rules and regulations, so that technological progress can truly serve people and protect the rights and interests of workers.
How to properly divide the cake of technological dividends is an unavoidable part of overcoming the "Engels Pause".
Zhao Wen, a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that in the long run, technological progress can make the social wealth pie bigger, and the prospects are promising; however, the transformation should not be too fast, otherwise it will intensify the contradictions between employment, cognition, and benefit distribution. Currently, AI companies rely on public data and infrastructure to obtain excess returns, but the pricing of data elements and the rules for attributing returns are still unclear. It is necessary to adhere to shared development, clarify income distribution, lengthen the transition buffer period, develop labor-friendly technologies, support social security, and smooth job impacts.
Wang Song, a lecturer in the Economics Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration), said that the "Engels Pause" is a phased phenomenon manifested in the technological change period of previous industrial revolutions. Historically, developed countries came out of the "Engels pause" because of the formation of a collective wage bargaining system, the expansion of social division of labor, which promoted the expansion of employment scale, and the capture of international value from late-developing countries in unequal exchanges. Under the combined effect of these conditions, the real income of workers in developed countries has increased. However, the digital and intelligent technology revolution is reshaping these conditions and posing new challenges to the development of various countries. This enlightens us that the problem of "Engels' pause" does not lie in the technology itself, but in the production relations formed in the application of technology. In the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, we should adhere to shared development, promote the construction of harmonious labor relations, support the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and advocate global collaborative governance. By building an institutionalized technology dividend sharing mechanism, technological progress can be transformed into the material and technological foundation that promotes the free and comprehensive development of people.
Historical conditions are changing, and system design must also focus on workers’ benefits and security. Only by making the sharing mechanism accessible can "technology for good" be transformed into a realistic order.
Dun Zhigang, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, suggested that we should improve the labor income sharing mechanism, incorporate skills training into public services and corporate responsibilities, improve algorithm governance and labor security, increase inclusive support for small and medium-sized private enterprises, and explore multiple channels to allow workers to share the value-added benefits of AI.
From the era of steam engines to the era of artificial intelligence, productivity has broken through boundaries time and time again, but how to better distribute the fruits of growth is a question of the times that continues to be answered. Only by embedding workers' rights and interests and fair distribution into the entire process of technological development can we truly overcome the "Engels pause" and make the new round of technological revolution benefit all people.
