经济学人127:权势大亨们和飞机制造企业

 　　Fat cats and corporate¹ jets

　　权势大亨们和飞机制造企业

　　Why is it so unrewarding for politicians to bash the rich in America?

　　为什么美国政客都不愿意对富人进行打击呢？

　　Jul 7th 2011 | from the print edition

　　THE corporate jet gets a lousy press. In the James Bond classic, “Goldfinger”, the eponymous villain³ is sucked out of the window of just such an aircraft. In 2008 the bosses of Detroit’s moribund⁴ car companies did themselves no favours when they flew in their gleaming jets to Washington, DC, to beg Congress for bail-outs (they drove the next time). And in his present face-off with the Republicans over the federal debt ceiling, Barack Obama is bashing the jets again, because to the man in the street the corporate jet is a perfect proxy⁵ for a fat cat. “I’ve said to Republican leaders, you go talk to your constituents⁶ and ask them, ‘Are you willing to compromise your kids’ safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?’.”

　　私人飞机面临着大量的压力。在詹姆士?邦德经典电影《金手指》中，臭名昭著的恶棍就是从这样的飞机窗户中被吸出去的。2008年，底特律濒临倒闭的汽车企业的老板们飞往华盛顿请求国会给予应急措施时，他们乘坐的豪华飞机并没有给他们带来一丁点帮助（第二次是开车来的）。在他出席的与共和党关于政府债务限额问题的面对面会议中，巴拉克?奥巴马再一次猛烈抨击私人飞机，因为对于大街上的普通民众来说，私人飞机就是有钱肥猫的最佳代言人。“我已经对共和党领导人说过，你去问问你的选民们这样一个问题：‘你们愿意用孩子的安全作为代价来换取某些私人飞机的主人减税吗？’”

　　Needless to say, Mr Obama is now accused by the aircraft manufacturers of scapegoating⁷ a successful industry that employs more than a million Americans and by the Republicans of launching a populist “class war”. But this raises a question. If an authentic⁸ populist movement exists in the United States today, it is not composed of impoverished⁹ class warriors¹⁰ braying¹¹ to squeeze the rich until their pips squeak¹². It is the tea-party movement, whose crusade to slash¹³ taxes and pare government to the bone far outweighs¹⁴ whatever distaste it might feel towards those magnificent fat cats in their flying machines.

　　不用说，私人飞机现在肯定指责奥巴马将一个提供超过一百万岗位的成功产业作为替罪羊，而且共和党会指责他发起了一个平民主义的“阶级斗争”。但这提出了一个问题，如果当今美国存在一个真正的平民运动，那么这将不包括那些尖叫着要将富人榨干的贫民阶级勇士们。这是茶党运动，其改革运动旨在减少税收和彻底精简政府，任何不喜欢茶党运动的都有可能倾向于飞机里的那些重要的大亨们。

　　Why is bashing the rich such an unpopular form of populism in America? The normal answer falls back on culture. Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution notes that Americans are repelled¹⁵ by the notion of inequality in worth or status. That men are created equal is, after all, “self-evident”. They are, however, far less perturbed¹⁶ by unequal wealth, a form of inequality that is the inevitable¹⁷ product of the free-market system in which most still profess¹⁸ an abiding¹⁹ faith. According to Tom Smith, director of the Centre for the Study of Politics and Society at the University of Chicago, surveys still show Americans to be more sympathetic than Europeans to the idea that unequal pay encourages people to work hard, for example, and less sympathetic to the idea that governments should try to smooth such inequalities out.

　　为何在美国抨击富人是非常不受欢迎的一种平民主义形式？常规的答案归根于文化，布鲁金斯学会的比尔?盖尔斯顿指出，美国人对财产和社会地位不平等的说法感到厌恶。毕竟人人生而平等是“不言而喻”的，但却被不平等的财富完全打乱。财富不均作为不公平的一种形式，是自由市场体系不可避免的产物，但多数人声称仍然对自由市场体系持有不变的信念。根据芝加哥大学政治与社会研究中心主任汤姆?史密斯的调查，发现美国人比欧洲人更加赞同这样的想法，即不平等的待遇激励人们更加努力的工作，但是，不赞成政府应当尝试消除不平等的想法。

　　That said, you might think that the normal answer would no longer do in such abnormal times—after a great recession and with 18m people still looking for work. And, sure enough, every week brings a flood of complaints in the media about the rich getting richer while the incomes of the middle class stagnate²⁰ or fall. A survey for the New York Times has just reported that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was little shy of $11m a year—a mouth-watering 23% rise since 2009. Joseph Stiglitz, the holder²¹ of a Nobel prize in economics, claimed in Vanity Fair that the top 1% of Americans were taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income and controlled 40% of its wealth, though others dispute his numbers.

　　据说，也许你认为常规的答案已经不再适在这个反常的时代——大萧条以及1800万人口失业。而且，不出所料的是，媒体上每周都有大量的牢骚，抱怨有钱人越来越有钱而中产阶级的收入没有增加或者减少。纽约时报的一份调查显示，去年，200家大公司的首席执行官的年薪平均为将近1100万美元——自2009年以来，达到令人羡慕的23%的年增长率。诺贝尔经济学奖得主约瑟夫?斯蒂格利茨在《名利场》一书中声称：美国最富有的1%的人口持有将近全美国四分之一的收入并且控制着美国40%的资产，但很多人对他的数据存在争议。

　　As to whether such disparities should matter, that question has puzzled philosophers at least since the Enlightenment. This column proposes no definitive²² answer this week. The point here is only that Americans do not seem to mind about the widening inequality of income and wealth as much as you might expect them to in current circumstances. By and large, they have preferred opportunity to levelling; equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. The trouble with this is that America is a long way from providing equal opportunity. Children born into the bottom fifth of the income distribution are nearly five times as likely to end their lives there as those from families in the top fifth. Indeed, social scientists are no longer sure whether it is still easier to climb the ladder in the “classless” United States than it is in the supposedly class-hobbled lands of Western Europe.

　　对于这样的不公平是否应当引起重视，这个问题自启蒙运动以来就一直困扰着哲学家们。本专栏在本周不打算给出明确的答案，我们的重点是：当前情况下，似乎只有美国人不关心收入和财富差距越来越大，也许没有你期待的那么强烈。总体上来说，他们更喜欢机遇而不是公平，更喜欢机遇平等而不是结果平等。这种想法带来的问题是美国人一直以来提供公平的机遇。收入分配最低的5%的人中，其孩子出生后几乎有5倍的可能享受与收入最高5%人中的孩子一样的生活。的确，社会科学家已经不再确定在美国“无阶级”社会中攀登幸福生活的阶梯是否要比据称有等级阻碍的西欧国家更加容易。

　　What are vote-seeking politicians to make of this? That the American people appear to have kept faith in the hardest of times with the idea of leaving it mainly to markets rather than governments to allocate²³ life’s material rewards strikes many Republicans as a marvellous thing—the glorious opposite of what happened in the 1930s, when the economically stricken turned to government for succour. In the case of the recent collapse²⁴, runs the Republican argument, misplaced government intervention—such as the egalitarian nonsense of extending credit for home-ownership to those who could not really afford it—was at least as much to blame as the excesses of the private sector²⁵. That, to judge by the eruption²⁶ of the tea-party movement, is the verdict of many non-aligned Americans too. So the Grand Old Party is betting on this anti-government wave restoring it to power in 2012.

　　寻求选票的政客们怎么看待这个问题呢？美国人民似乎在最艰难的年代也信心十足，因为他们坚持让市场而不是政府去分配生活物资奖励，打击了很多共和党人的不可思议事情发生了——当20世纪30年代经济大衰退向政府寻求救援时，所发生的一切的光辉对立面。最近金融危机的事例中，共和党中争论不断，政府干涉错位——诸如将房产拥有者的信贷扩大到那些甚至无力偿还的人的荒谬平等主义——至少怪罪于私有部门的失误操作。从茶党运动的爆发来判断，也是很多持中立态度的美国人的最终答案。因此，美国共和党断言这股反政府浪潮能促使他们在2012年重建他们的政权。

　　Not so exceptional, after all?

　　毕竟，不会太出人意料?

　　There are those on the Democratic side who urge Mr Obama to place precisely²⁷ the opposite bet. His great mistake, they say, is failing to see that, beyond the din² the tea-partiers make, most Americans deeply resent the bailing-out of the bankers and the rest of the undeserving rich who led the economy to the abyss, and would rally to the president if he only found the courage to mete²⁸ out the punishment these villains²⁹ deserve. Only thus can he summon up a populist wave for himself and ride it to re-election.

　　在民主党派中也有人力促奥巴马总统采取恰恰相反的措施。他们说，他最大的错误就是没有看到在茶党人士的喧嚣以外，大多数美国人深深地怨恨对银行家和其他那些不配获得援助的富人实施应急措施，是这些富人们将经济带向危机的深渊，而且他们愿意支持总统如果他有勇气给予这些小人应有的惩罚。只有这样，他才能唤起一股支持他的平民主义浪潮并且一直到再次竞选。

　　And yet Mr Obama, as is his wishy-washy wont³⁰, is not biting. He still plans to end the Bush-era tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000. But for all his occasional digs at the fat cats and their jets, this president is not and will probably never be the avenging³¹ egalitarian the left of his party dreams of. His own bet seems to be that in the matter of inequality the American people are less exceptional than they like to think they are. They might be unusually tolerant of big gaps between the rich and poor, but they expect the rich to pay their way and the state to offer a helping³² hand to those who cannot rise without one. This middling bet might not be the most exciting reading of America’s mood. But it may be the shrewdest path to re-election.

　　而且奥巴马总统并不尖锐，就像他一贯空泛的作风一样。他仍然打算结束布什时代的税收减免政策，该政策针对年薪超过25万美元的群体。但是至于他对大亨们和他们飞机的偶然的嘲讽，作为总统的他不会，也许将永远不会成为他的党派所梦想的复仇平等主义者。他们也许不同寻常地忍受着贫富间的巨大差距，但是他们期待富人能自食其力，而且国家能为那些无法通过自己努力富裕起来的人们提供帮助。这个折中的做法也许不是最能激起美国人民热情的方式，但是这也许是获得连任的最有效的途径。

　　注释：

　　tea-party movement：茶党运动，茶党运动是美国公众发起的一场反对奥巴马政府的经济刺激计划和医疗改革方案，主张政府要减小规模、缩减开支、降低税收、弱化监管的自下而上形成的社会运动。之所以命名为茶党，可以追溯到1773年为了反对英国政府对北美殖民地实行的不公平税收政策而引发的波士顿倾茶事件，期间示威者打出的口号是“税收已经太多了”（Taxed Enough Al-ready），而它的首字母组合在一起正是单词“TEA”（茶）。由此茶党也就寓意着对苛捐杂税的抗争乃至对现实的不满。

1 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

2 din   

n.喧闹声，嘈杂声

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• They tried to make themselves heard over the din of the crowd.他们力图让自己的声音盖过人群的喧闹声。

3 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

4 moribund   

adj.即将结束的，垂死的

参考例句：

• The moribund Post Office Advisory Board was replaced.这个不起作用的邮局顾问委员会已被替换。
• Imperialism is monopolistic,parasitic and moribund capitalism.帝国主义是垄断的、寄生的、垂死的资本主义。

5 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

6 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 scapegoating   

v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Washington's scapegoating of China could take the world to the brink of a very slippery slope. 华盛顿方面找中国作替罪羊，可能会把世界推向灾难性下滑的边缘。 来自互联网

8 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

9 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

11 braying   

v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的现在分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击

参考例句：

• A donkey was braying on the hill behind the house. 房子后面的山上传来驴叫声。 来自互联网
• What's the use of her braying out such words? 她粗声粗气地说这种话有什么用呢？ 来自互联网

12 squeak   

n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another squeak out of you!我不想再听到你出声！
• We won the game,but it was a narrow squeak.我们打赢了这场球赛，不过是侥幸取胜。

13 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

14 outweighs   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• Her need to save money outweighs her desire to spend it on fun. 她省钱的需要比她花钱娱乐的愿望更重要。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Its clarity in algebraic and analytical operations far outweighs any drawbacks. 文化代数和解析运算中的清晰性远远胜过任何缺点。 来自辞典例句

15 repelled   

v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开

参考例句：

• They repelled the enemy. 他们击退了敌军。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The minister tremulously, but decidedly, repelled the old man's arm. 而丁梅斯代尔牧师却哆里哆嗦地断然推开了那老人的胳臂。 来自英汉文学 - 红字

16 perturbed   

adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I am deeply perturbed by the alarming way the situation developing. 我对形势令人忧虑的发展深感不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother was much perturbed by my illness. 母亲为我的病甚感烦恼不安。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

17 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

18 profess   

v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰

参考例句：

• I profess that I was surprised at the news.我承认这消息使我惊讶。
• What religion does he profess?他信仰哪种宗教？

19 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

20 stagnate   

v.停止

参考例句：

• Where the masses are not roused,work will stagnate.哪里不发动群众，哪里的工作就死气沉沉。
• Taiwan's economy is likely to stagnate for a long time to come.台湾经济很可能会停滞很长一段时间。

21 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

22 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

23 allocate   

vt.分配，分派；把…拨给；把…划归

参考例句：

• You must allocate the money carefully.你们必须谨慎地分配钱。
• They will allocate fund for housing.他们将拨出经费建房。

24 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

25 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

26 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

27 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

28 mete   

v.分配；给予

参考例句：

• Schools should not mete out physical punishment to children.学校不应该体罚学生。
• Duly mete out rewards and punishments.有赏有罚。

29 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

30 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

31 avenging   

adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复

参考例句：

• He has devoted the past five years to avenging his daughter's death. 他过去5年一心报丧女之仇。 来自辞典例句
• His disfigured face was like some avenging nemesis of gargoyle design. 他那张破了相的脸，活象面目狰狞的复仇之神。 来自辞典例句

32 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。