豆知识 2011-12-04&12-10 美国政府破产的故事 (3/3)

 So why is there always enough money for the dinosaur¹ economy, from big oil to bailouts for big banks, but when it comes to building a better future, we’re supposedly broke? Maybe it’s because these guys know how to ask for it. Their lobbyists and giant campaign contributions let our government know what they want and what they'll do if they don't get it. And it works. US senators who voted to keep big oil subsidies² in 2011 have received five times more in Big Oil campaign cash than those who voted to end them. So while subsidies should be a tool to help companies that are helping³ us all, they’ve become a prize for those with the most power to get on the handout⁴ list. But you know who has the real power? We do. What if we got as protective of our tax dollars as we are with the rest of our money? What if we told our government what we want and what we'll do if we don't get it, starting with voting them out! We could redirect these dinosaur subsidies, freeing up hundreds of billions of dollars. Forget broke, we could start building a better future right now. 

 

 

 

We could begin by reinvesting the 10 billion dollars that we spent on the oil and gas subsidies into renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. With just half of that amount, we could provide solar energy to about 2 million households. Then use the rest to retrofit half a million homes, creating jobs and saving energy year after year. The average cost of cleaning up a toxic⁵ superfund site is 140 million dollars. Let's make the polluters pay and instead invest our money in developing safer materials, so we don't have to worry about spills in the first place. Most chemicals today are made from oil. That's why they're called petrochemicals. Switching just 20% of them to safer bio-based materials would create over 100,000 new jobs.

 

 

 

And instead of subsidizing garbage incinerators, let's subsidize real solutions, like zero waste. Raising US recycling rate to 75% would result in 1.5 million new jobs with less pollution, less waste and less pressure to harvest and mind new stuff. What’s not to like? That would still leave billions of dollars for improving education - the best investment for a healthy economy. With a hundred billion dollars, we could increase the number of elementary school teachers by over 40% and give college scholarships over 6 million students. 

 

 

 

See, we can rebuild the American Dream. We can afford to have a healthy environment, good jobs and top-notch public education, but not if we continue subsidizing the dinosaur economy. 

 

 

 

So the next time you have an idea for a better future and someone tells you, ’that’s nice, but there is no money for that,’ you tell them we’re not broke. There is money. It’s ours and it’s time to invest it right.

1 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。

2 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》

3 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。

4 handout   

n.散发的文字材料；救济品

参考例句：

• I read the handout carefully.我仔细看了这份分发的资料。
• His job was distributing handout at the street-corner.他的工作是在街头发传单。

5 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。