新闻周刊:债台高筑 谁为高额助学贷款买单?(1)

From the Opinion Section

摘自《观点》板块

The Case Against Student Loans: Why Weak Students Should Pay More

反对学生贷款的理由：为什么弱势学生应该付出更多

By Bryan Caplan

作者：布莱恩·卡普兰

Total U.S. student debt now stands at $1.5 trillion.

目前，美国学生贷款总额总额达1.5万亿美元。

Without the support of the federal government, most of this debt would never have been possible.

如果么有联邦政府的支持，那么大部分贷款将不复存在。

Even so-called unsubsidized student loans are, in fact, heavily subsidized, compared with, say, credit card debt.

事实上，与信用卡债务相比，即使所谓的无补助学生贷款也是得到政府大量补助的。

Yet, strangely, almost no one argues that America has gotten its money's worth.

然而，奇怪的是，几乎没人认为这笔钱花的值。

Our student loan programs'main payoff is complaints.

我们的学生贷款项目收到的回报皆是抱怨。

Parents, students and activists¹ fret² that this crushing debt has to be repaid.

父母、学生和积极分子担心着沉重的债务必须偿还。

Student loan programs have saddled a generation of young people with onerous³ financial obligations—

学生贷款项目让年轻一代背负了沉重的财务负担——

commitments that prevent them from starting a family or moving out of their parents'basement.

这成为他们组建家庭或是搬出父母地下室的绊脚石。

Wouldn't it be better if college were affordable⁴ for everyone?

如果人人都负担得起大学费用，岂不是更好吗？

Yet many of these same critics also blame student loans for "sending too many kids to college."

而很多批评家也指摘学生贷款“送了太多的学生去上大学”。

Lots of academically weak students, the thinking goes, use cheap credit to gamble on their future.

他们认为，很多学业成绩差的学生再利用廉价学生贷款拿自己的未来做赌注。

While this occasionally pans out, weaker students usually fail.

尽管这种情况偶尔才会出现，但是更弱势的学生通常会赌输。

One major study found that more than half of high school grads with below-average math scores now start college, but less than a quarter who do so actually cross the finish line.

一项大型研究发现，超过半数的数学成绩低于平均水平的-高中毕业生现已开始上大学，但是只有不到四分之一的人的顺利大学毕业。

And when weaker students manage to graduate, they rarely have the prestigious⁵ majors and high grades required to get the lucrative⁶ jobs they need to repay their loans.

更弱势的学生毕业时很少会符合高薪工作要求的名牌专业和优秀的成绩，而高薪工作又是偿还贷款所必需的。

Isn't it perverse⁷ to dangle⁸ cheap credit in front of naive⁹ young people and expect them to choose well?

在天真的年轻人面前摆弄廉价信贷，并期望他们做出正确选择，这难道不是反常的吗？

1 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

3 onerous   

adj.繁重的

参考例句：

• My household duties were not particularly onerous.我的家务活并不繁重。
• This obligation sometimes proves onerous.这一义务有时被证明是艰巨的。

4 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

5 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

6 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

7 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

8 dangle   

v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂

参考例句：

• At Christmas,we dangle colored lights around the room.圣诞节时，我们在房间里挂上彩灯。
• He sits on the edge of the table and dangles his legs.他坐在桌子边上，摆动著双腿。

9 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。