At the Richmond Neighborhood Center(一個公益組織) in San Francisco, more than 200 people are on the waitlist for the food pantry. The center is just a couple of miles west of “AI Alley,” where a cluster of major AI companies take in billions of dollars in investments and pay out high salaries to employees — in turn making home prices and rent payments soar.
San Francisco serves as a prime example of how the roaring AI industry is helping drive economic growth more broadly, but masking the economic inequality of lower-and-middle-income families.
And San Francisco reflects the same patterns happening on a national scale: In the first three months of the year, the US economy overall grew at a solid 2.1% annualized rate, largely due to businesses ramping up AI-related investments, according to Commerce Department data.
Yet consumer sentiment is languishing near record lows over wartime price spikes, and the bottom quarter of Americans on the income spectrum have seen the weakest wage growth of any other cohort this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
“The inequalities in the neighborhood have just grown and grown and grown,” Yves Xavier, community programs director at the Richmond Neighborhood Center, told CNN. “We can’t draw a direct line to AI’s impact and say ‘That’s exactly it’ because it’s been happening for a while, but it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to see how that’s widening the inequalities in a city already dealing with those issues.”
He added that demand for the nonprofit’s food pantry is up about 10% this year.
VOCABULARY & PHRASES
- pantry: 食物儲藏室
- food pantry: 食物配給；食物分發站
Over 200 people are currently waiting for food pantry services. - a cluster of: 一群
I saw a cluster of birds flying in the sky. - in turn: 進而；接著；導致
The new tool improved our production, which in turn saved us a lot of costs. - rent payments: 租金支付
Please send your rent payments on the 5th of every month.
Rent payments are due on the 5th of each month. - soar: 升高
Local rent payments have soared since TSMC set up operations here. - lower-and-middle-income families: 中低收入家庭
- ramping up: 持續增加
AI investment is significantly ramping up this year. - Commerce Department: 商業部
- sentiment: 情緒；感情
- consumer sentiment: 消費者信心（指數）
Consumer sentiment is languishing near record lows.
消費者信心指數持續低迷，逼近歷史低點。 - languishing: 失去活力
Consumer sentiment has been languishing for several months. - the bottom quarter of: 最後的四分之一；最後的25%
Employees in the bottom quarter of performance may be subject to layoff. - cohort: 群體；同類群組；具有相同特點的一群
We are analyzing the purchasing behavior of the younger cohort. - draw a direct line to: 直接關聯
- it doesn’t take a rocket scientist: 不需要什麼高深學問
沒有留言:
張貼留言