豆知识 2011-11-27&12-03 美国政府破产的故事 (2/3)

 Well, first the military takes the biggest chunk¹, 726 billion dollars in 2011. Wow! We could build a lot of better future with that kind of money. Spending billions on fighter planes we don't need or wars with no end and then saying we're broke just isn't honest. It's like calling your kid from your billion-dollar yacht to tell you can't afford her school lunch money.

 

 

 

Then hundreds of billions more go to propping² up the dinosaur³ economy. You know, the obsolete⁴ system we talked about in The Story of Stuff, the one that produces more pollution, greenhouse gases and garbage than any other on earth, and doesn't even make us happy. In so many ways, it's just not working. But we're keeping it on life support instead of building something better. A lot of that life support comes in the form of subsidies⁵.

 

 

 

A subsidy⁶ is a giveaway that gives some companies a lift over others. That's not necessarily a bad thing. We should help companies that are building a better future. The problem is our government keeps lifting up companies that are actually dragging us down. Everywhere you look along the dinosaur economy, you'll find these subsidies.

 

 

 

There’re spending subsidies: where the government just gives our money away like payments that benefit big agribusiness while helping⁷ drive family farms off a cliff, or the less obvious version where the government foots the bill for things corporations should pay for themselves like cleaning up toxic⁸ chemical spills or giant livestock⁹ manure¹⁰ ponds, or building roads that only go to one place like a new Walmart, or paying for polluting and wasteful¹¹ garbage incinerators that would never make financial sense to build on their own.

 

 

 

Then there’re tax subsidies which excuse big corporations from contributing their fair share, like the enormous tax breaks granted to oil and gas companies even in times of record profits. These subsidies amount to billions we should be collecting and putting to good use. 

 

 

 

And then there're risk transfer subsidies where our government acts as an investment bank or an insurance company for corporations doing risky¹² things, like building nuclear reactors¹³. If anything goes wrong, we have to cover for them.

 

 

 

There’re freebie subsidies, where our government gives stuff that belongs to all of us to corporations for cheap or even free. That's billions more that we should be collecting but never see. Like permits to mine public lands granted at prices set in the Mining Law of 1872. Really? 1872! President Grant signed this law to encourage settlement of the West. News flash, it's settled. And all this doesn't even count externalized costs. They don't show up on any spreadsheet and could amount to trillions of dollars including all of the damage to the environment, public health and the climate that this dinosaur economy causes. Without laws that make the polluters pay, we all pay with the loss of clean air and water, of increased asthma¹⁴ and cancer.

1 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

2 propping   

支撑

参考例句：

• You can usually find Jack propping up the bar at his local. 你常常可以看见杰克频繁出没于他居住的那家酒店。
• The government was accused of propping up declining industries. 政府被指责支持日益衰败的产业。

3 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

4 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

5 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

7 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。

8 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

9 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

10 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

11 wasteful   

adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的

参考例句：

• It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
• Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源，任务已经重新分派。

12 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

13 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

14 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。