VOA常速英语2014--Analysts: Rich, Poor Far Apart in US 研究师称美国贫富差距大（在线收听）

Analysts: Rich, Poor Far Apart in US 研究师称美国贫富差距大

WASHINGTON — Many analysts agree there is a wide economic divide in the United States between the destitute and the wealthy.  And they say it's not getting any better.  But there are differing opinions about what led the country to this divide, and whether President Obama can do anything to close the gap, as he suggested in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

华盛顿 — 分析人士都同意，美国的富人和贫困者之间有极大的经济差距。他们也说，这个情况并没有改善。至于是什么原因导致如此，以及奥巴马总统是否有办法来拉近这个鸿沟，像是他在星期二国情咨文中的提议，专家看法分歧。

Ameyah doesn’t understand why her mother has to pay bills.

阿米亚不懂她母亲为什么必须付账单。

But Tiffany Beroid can think of little else as she struggles to make ends meet. She works part-time, making minimum wage at Walmart.  If she takes a full-time job, she won’t be able to afford child care for her two daughters.

不过蒂芬妮·贝若德无法不去想到关于账单的事，她必须努力维持家计。她在沃尔玛兼职，赚取最低工资。如果她要全职工作，就负担不起2个女儿的保姆费用。

Beroid calls herself “the working poor.”   And she recently added the label of sole breadwinner, because her husband just got laid off.   

贝若德称自己是一个“贫困劳工”。她最近又添了一个单独养家的标签，因为她的丈夫才被裁员。

“It makes it very very tough for us now, so now we have to really buckle down  and there’s nothing extra that we can afford," she said.  "After we buy diapers and things for the girls, that’s just it.”

“贫困劳工” 蒂芬妮·贝若德说：“我们现在的情况真的是非常非常的窘困，现在我们必须勒紧腰带，我们负担不起任何额外的支出。在我们给女儿买了尿片和一些东西之后就没钱了。”

Beroid works at her neighborhood Walmart in Prince George’s County, Maryland.  Here, there are no boutiques and no places to stroll.

贝若德在马里兰乔治王子郡家里附近的沃尔玛工作。这里没有精品店也没有名店街可逛。

But 29 kilometers away, life is far different in upscale Chevy Chase, Maryland.

不过29公里外的马里兰高档赛维采斯地区，人们的生活情形大不相同。

Locals refer to an area in the center of the suburban city as the “Rodeo Drive of Maryland,” named after the famous celebrity shopping district in Beverly Hills, California.  The main shopping district is lined with high-end stores for people who can afford them.

当地人称这个地方为“马里兰的罗迪欧大道”，有如加州贝弗利山著名的名人购物区。这里街道两旁都是当地人负担得起的高档名店。

People in this neighborhood live in houses that doubled their median value in the past decade - to nearly $1 million.

在过去10年里，这里的房价的中间值增加了一倍，房价涨到将近1百万美元。

A University of California Berkeley study says the salaries of America's top 1 percent wage earners soared by 30 percent over three years.  While everyone else's salary grew less than half a percent

加州大学伯克利分校的一个研究说，美国全民百分之一的最高收入者的收入过去3年来增加了百分之30，而其他人的薪资只增加不到百分之零点5。

Peter Cappelli, who is with the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, blames the outsourcing of union jobs as paychecks ballooned in the financial sector.

彼得·卡佩里是美国宾州大学沃顿商学院教授。他认为，美国的工会工作被外包、金融行业薪金大增是原因。

"The big question is are things going on that have kind of changed the rules and stacked the deck further in favor of people who are already pretty wealthy," he said.

Back in Chevy Chase, another explanation.

卡佩里通过Skpye接受采访。他说： “最大的问题是，是否有什么事情在改变游戏规则并重新洗牌，进一步更有利于原本就非常富有的人。”不过在马里兰州的赛维采斯镇，这里有另一种解释。

“In the last few years because of the economic crisis I would think a lot of people lost jobs,” one woman said.

当地的一名妇女说： “我认为，过去几年由于经济危机，可能有很多人失去工作。”

“Because of greed in the world,” a man added.

当地的一名男士说： “因为世人的贪得无厌。”

Beroid is fighting Walmart to raise its minimum wage. Walmart says its wages are higher than average.  As a private employer, the store would not be affected by the president's expected order to raise wages for federal contractors.

贝若德正在与沃尔玛抗争，希望能提高最低工资。沃尔玛说它的工资已经比一般还高。作为私有企业雇主，奥巴马预期要提高联邦合同工最低工资的行政命令，对沃尔玛并没有影响。

Obama had pushed to raise the minimum for all workers, but Congress argued that higher wages would lead to more layoffs.

奥巴马总统曾经推动要提高所有劳工的最低工资，不过国会认为提高工资将导致更多裁员。

Cappelli says raising wages is only a short-term fix.

卡佩里说，提高工资只是一个短期办法。

“I don’t think anybody would choose this as the best way to help the working poor, but it’s in place," he said. "We can increase the minimum wage more easily than we could put in place an entirely new program.”

宾州大学华沃顿商学院教授卡佩里说： “我不认为任何人会认为这是帮助贫困劳工的最好办法，不过这个东西原来就在那里，提高最低工资要比实施一个全新的项目来得容易多了。”

Capelli says the country should focus on future generations and preserving America's middle ground, because that's what it's losing.

卡佩里说，美国应该把目标放在未来的世代，保存美国的中间立场，因为这才是美国正在失去的东西。