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VOA慢速英语2011--‘Occupy’ Demonstrators Share a Common Message Although Demands May

时间:2011-12-07 05:48:43

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THIS IS AMERICA - ‘Occupy’ Demonstrators Share a Common Message Although Demands May

 

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we look at the income gap in the United States and hear from some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: The Occupy Wall Street protests began in the middle of September in New York. Since then they have spread around the country, to other cities, to college campuses, and to other countries.

Different groups have made different demands, but the protesters have a common message. They say they represent "the ninety-nine percent," meaning all but the wealthiest one percent of the population.

Some cities have ordered protesters to stop camping in public places, leading to clashes and arrests in some cases. Two overnight raids last Wednesday were generally peaceful.

OCCUPY LA PROTESTERS: "You represent the one percent!"

Police officers arrest an Occupy Los Angeles protestor at the encampment at city hall November 30, 2011 in Los Angeles

Police removed Occupy camps near the city administration buildings in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Officers made about three hundred arrests on the West Coast and fifty on the East Coast.

In Los Angeles, officials said they supported the aims of the two-month Occupy LA protest and wanted to respect freedom of speech. But they expressed concerns about health and public safety.

Last month police in New York cleared Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the movement.

Fifty-six percent of Americans in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in November said they neither supported nor opposed the movement or had no opinion. That was unchanged from the middle of October.

Still, the protests have increased attention and debate on the issue of income inequality.

Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Duarte Park in New York last month after they were forced to leave Zucotti Park after nearly two months of occupation

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In October the Congressional Budget Office released a report on trends in the way income is spread throughout the population. Members of Congress requested the study as part of their debate over how to improve the economy and reduce the nation's debt.

The report shows how the income gap, the division between the rich and the poor, has widened. It covers the period from nineteen seventy-nine to two thousand seven. This is what it says about the top one percent of earners: During that period their average income -- after taxes and adjusted for inflation -- grew by two hundred seventy-five percent.

Compared to other Americans, their share of the nation's income more than doubled. In nineteen seventy-nine the top one percent received eight percent of all after-tax household income. By two thousand seven that share had grown to seventeen percent.

At the same time, there was a drop in the share received by the lowest twenty percent of earners. The lowest fifth of the population received about five percent of all after-tax household income in two thousand seven. That was down from seven percent in nineteen seventy-nine.

STEVE EMBER: Law professor Peter Edelman is director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington. He also served in the administration of president Bill Clinton. Professor Edelman says the widening income gap is a result of several causes, both at the top and bottom of earnings1.

PETER EDELMAN: "At the bottom, the basic problem is that we lost industrial jobs, high paying jobs, starting forty years ago and even before, and they were replaced by much lower paying jobs so that we have a flood of jobs in our country that don’t pay enough to live on.

"At the top, which is where all of the growth in our country’s income has gone, really almost everything has gone to the top one percent over the last forty years, there are a number of causes of that. One is corporate2 policy about how it pays top executives. Maybe more fundamentally is tax policy in our country, which especially since President Bush took office, has resulted in lower taxes for people at the top. Some of it is changes in the economy which have made it possible for a few people to make a huge amount of money and amass3 a huge amount of wealth."

But isn't part of the American Dream the idea, at least in theory, that anyone can get rich with enough hard work? Why does this income issue matter? Professor Edelman says one problem is that economic inequality breeds political inequality.

PETER EDELMAN: "The political power that comes for the people at the very top, when they have that much wealth along with corporations with which they are associated, that they can put into political campaigns, and then that results in their being overrepresented in Congress and the halls of government."

Professor Edelman says voters who are unhappy with this situation have the power to change it.

PETER EDELMAN: "The main thing that we need to do in our country is to have people who are the voters who elect our officials express themselves in their voting, so that we have elected officials who are responsive to the majority of the people and not to a small group at the top."

Scott Sumner is an economics professor at Bentley University in Massachusetts. He thinks income inequality is not the best way to look at economic inequality.

SCOTT SUMNER: "In my view the real problem is, to the extent that we should focus on economic inequality, it should be consumption, not income. So I've argued for a progressive consumption tax which would tax people at a higher level who have a very high level of consumption."

In other words, rich people who spend a lot of their money would pay higher taxes than those who invest it or give that money to charity.

Another Scott, Scott Winship, is a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He believes income inequality is only important to the extent that there is low economic mobility4.

SCOTT WINSHIP: "I think that our levels of economic mobility leave a little bit to be desired and that that's probably a more important issue to focus on than inequality is. Unfortunately, when you look at economic mobility, we do look very immobile compared to other countries. In the sense that if you start at the bottom, if your parents were poor, you're much more likely in the U.S. than in other countries to also end up at the bottom yourself, and I think that really is a big problem."

Finding solutions, he says, requires experimenting in several different areas.

SCOTT WINSHIP: "I think we need to be very concerned about things like getting more people into college, and qualifying for college and then graduating once they get there. And we need to worry about other things that promote poverty, such as family instability and unstable5 job markets as well."

The nation's unemployment rate has remained around nine percent for months. President Obama hopes to get re-elected next November. His public approval ratings have suffered, while those for Congress have fallen to historic lows. Mr. Obama has been asking Americans to be patient with his efforts to speed economic recovery.

BARACK OBAMA: "It is going to take time to rebuild an economy that restores security for the middle class, renews opportunity for folks trying to reach the middle class. It is going to take time to rebuild an economy that is not based on outsourcing or tax loopholes or risky6 financial deals, but one that is built to last."

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement say big business has too much political influence. They argue that greed and self-interest have gotten in the way of democracy. Twenty-nine-year-old Damien Nichols joined an Occupy Baltimore camp at a state park in Maryland. He studied politics and government in college, and says the Occupy movement wants to "reboot democracy."

DAMIEN NICHOLS: "If City Halls and Washington, DC, are the gatekeepers for our political representation and we don’t believe that they are currently representing us, then what we’ve done here is we’ve all come out in our major cities, including Washington, DC, and started a conversation amongst ourselves to see what needs to done about it."

His friend, Samantha Cuff7, says she believes some people are trying to "get back in touch with their humanity."

SAMANTHA CUFF: "And I think that is kind of what this is about for some people, is that, you know, yeah, 'the one percent, they’re subjugating8 us,' and all that. But how many of us would gladly accept a million dollars to do a dirty deed, you know? And it’s about fighting that 'one percentism' within ourselves and not just outside of ourselves."

STEVE EMBER: Jerry Manpearl and his wife Jan Goodman are both lawyers who joined the protesters in Los Angeles.

JERRY MANPEARL: "[If] you destroy the middle class, you destroy the working class, you destroy this country."

Jan Goodman said the rich are not spending enough to help the economy.

JAN GOODMAN: "There's not enough boats and yachts and houses to buy. They save it."

Some religious leaders in Los Angeles complained that banks are not lending enough. Shakeel Syed of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California said the widening gap between rich and poor is easy to see.

SHAKEEL SYED: "When we visit certain neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles, you will see every second house being foreclosed, and the homes that are not foreclosed, the families are unable to meet the very basic needs. And then you cross town and you see Ferraris and Corvettes and Lamborghinis parked in the driveways.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Occupy protests began near Wall Street in New York’s Financial District. Many workers in the financial industry say the activists9 make some good points. But they say the movement is wrong to blame capitalism10 for the country's political and economic problems.

Bob Costello is an information technology consultant11 with the Federal Reserve Bank. He says the activists should be calling on Congress to limit the influence of companies in Washington.

BOB COSTELLO: "They want to express the anger, but there's no way to satisfy that anger. Personally, I think they ought to be in Washington in front of Congress going 'Maybe we should get our congressman12 to get the companies out of their pockets.' Because that's what this is about, right?"

Another question involves the future of the Occupy movement itself, especially now that winter is coming.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake. We also had reporting by David Byrd, Peter Fedynsky, Kent Klein and Mike O’Sullivan. I’m Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. You can find more stories about the Occupy movement, along with transcripts13 and MP3s of our programs, at voanews.cn. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 earnings rrWxJ     
n.工资收人;利润,利益,所得
参考例句:
  • That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
  • Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。
2 corporate 7olzl     
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的
参考例句:
  • This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
  • His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
3 amass tL5ya     
vt.积累,积聚
参考例句:
  • How had he amassed his fortune?他是如何积累财富的呢?
  • The capitalists amass great wealth by exploiting workers.资本家剥削工人而积累了巨额财富。
4 mobility H6rzu     
n.可动性,变动性,情感不定
参考例句:
  • The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
  • Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。
5 unstable Ijgwa     
adj.不稳定的,易变的
参考例句:
  • This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实,装不了这么多书。
  • The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。
6 risky IXVxe     
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。
7 cuff 4YUzL     
n.袖口;手铐;护腕;vt.用手铐铐;上袖口
参考例句:
  • She hoped they wouldn't cuff her hands behind her back.她希望他们不要把她反铐起来。
  • Would you please draw together the snag in my cuff?请你把我袖口上的裂口缝上好吗?
8 subjugating ca292d111775228251b8abc46e788ea6     
v.征服,降伏( subjugate的现在分词 )
参考例句:
9 activists 90fd83cc3f53a40df93866d9c91bcca4     
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》
10 capitalism er4zy     
n.资本主义
参考例句:
  • The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
  • Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。
11 consultant 2v0zp3     
n.顾问;会诊医师,专科医生
参考例句:
  • He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
  • Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来,加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
12 Congressman TvMzt7     
n.(美)国会议员
参考例句:
  • He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
  • The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。
13 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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