财富杂志 萎缩的中产阶级(1)

The vast majority of Americans consider themselves "middle class." No one can quite agree, though, on what that means.

绝大多数美国人认为自己是“中产阶级”。但对于中产阶级的定义，没人能够达成一致意见。

Richard Reeves, along with colleagues at the Brookings Institution,

Richard Reeves和布鲁金斯学会的同事

has cataloged no fewer than a dozen economic formulas that seek to define this elastic¹ cohort largely by what people earn each year:

共同编制了不少于12种经济公式，试图主要根据人们的年收入来定义这一弹性群体：

household income between X and Y; personal income that's within some percentage of the national median; distance from the poverty line; and so on.

家庭收入在X和Y之间；个人收入在全国中位数的某个百分比内；远离贫困线等等。

Combine the lot, and the range of who might be considered middle class is extraordinarily² expansive—

将这些因素结合起来，可被认为是中产阶级的人的范围就非常大了——

including anyone from a single, part-time bartender scratching by on $13,000 a year

比如靠着1.3万美元年薪勉强糊口的单身兼职酒保

to a suburban³ power couple pulling in $230,000, or 90% of American households in all.

以及住在郊区，年收入23万美元的模范夫妇，或者是90%的美国家庭。

Other economists⁵ and social scientists stretch the boundaries of membership in different dimensions,

其他经济学家和社会科学家们从不同的维度拓展了中产阶级成员资格的界限，

based on degrees of wealth or spending power, professional status or education level, what neighborhood you live in,

以财富和消费能力、专业地位或教育水平、居住社区为依据，

or even on that very American of conceits⁶, self-determination—which is to say, if you think you're middle class, you are.

甚至是以美国人的自负和自我决定为依据——也就是说，如果你认为自己是中产阶级，那么你就是。

"I sometimes think there are as many definitions of the middle class as there are Americans claiming to be middle class," says Reeves,

“有时我认为，对中产阶级有多少种定义就有多少美国人宣称自己是中产阶级，”Reeves说到，

a senior fellow at Brookings and director of its Future of the Middle Class Initiative,

他是布鲁金斯学会的高级研究员，也是中产阶级未来倡议的负责人，

who quickly throws in one of his favorite noneconomic definitions: "You're middle class if you have two refrigerators.

他很快给出了一个他最喜欢的非经济定义：“如果你有两台冰箱，那么你就是中产阶级。

You have a new one in your kitchen, and you have your old one in the garage or basement, where you keep your beer."

你的厨房里有一台新的，你的旧冰箱在车库或你存放啤酒的地下室里。”

The U.S. is a middle-class nation—it was founded on middle-class ideals, he continues.

美国是一个中产阶级国家——它是建立在中产阶级理想之上的，他继续说到。

And so defining one's self as middle class is, perhaps counterintuitively, aspirational⁷ in some ways.

所以将自己定义为中产阶级可能在某种程度上是有反常识的，也是充满抱负的。

"Americans don't like the idea of seeing themselves as upper crust, snobs⁸, snooty, aristocrats⁹, upper class, et cetera," says Reeves,

“美国人不喜欢把自己看成是上流社会、势利的人、傲慢的人、贵族、上层阶级等等，”Reeves说到，

an economist⁴ and self-described "recovered Brit" who has written a new book, Dream Hoarders, precisely¹⁰ on that rarefied American upper crust.

他是一名自诩“病愈的英国人”的经济学家，他写的新书《Dream Hoarders》正是针对这一高高在上的美国上流社会。

"People also don't like to think of themselves as poor, or even as working class.

“人们不喜欢把自己看成是穷人，或工人阶级。

To the extent that the U.S. has a class consciousness, it tends to be around the middle class."

就美国的阶级意识而言，它往往是围绕着中产阶级。”

1 elastic   

n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的

参考例句：

• Rubber is an elastic material.橡胶是一种弹性材料。
• These regulations are elastic.这些规定是有弹性的。

2 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

3 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 conceits   

高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻

参考例句：

• He jotted down the conceits of his idle hours. 他记下了闲暇时想到的一些看法。
• The most grotesque fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. 夜晚躺在床上的时候，各种离奇怪诞的幻想纷至沓来。

7 aspirational   

志同的，有抱负的

参考例句：

• Most of the images that bombard us all are aspirational. 轰击的图像，我们都期望最大。
• Analysts said self-help and aspirational reading could explain India's high figures. 分析师们指出，自助读书、热爱读书是印度人均读书时间超过别的国家的主要原因。

8 snobs   

（谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者

参考例句：

• She dislikes snobs intensely. 她极其厌恶势利小人。
• Most of the people who worshipped her, who read every tidbit about her in the gossip press and hung up pictures of her in their rooms, were not social snobs. 崇敬她大多数的人不会放过每一篇报导她的八卦新闻，甚至在他们的房间中悬挂黛妃的画像，这些人并非都是傲慢成性。

9 aristocrats   

n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many aristocrats were killed in the French Revolution. 许多贵族在法国大革命中被处死。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• To the Guillotine all aristocrats! 把全部贵族都送上断头台！ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

10 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。