【2022-06-18】
@whigzhou: 出生在1980年前后移民家庭,且父母收入水平处于第25个百分位的男孩,成年后的收入平均百分位,
来源:www.aei.org/economics/why-do-the-kids-of-immigrants-move-up-the-economic-ladder/
评论:
1)显著高于45的部分显然无法以均值回归解释;
2)对于近水楼台,移民屏障好像对禀赋没(more...)
【2022-06-18】
@whigzhou: 出生在1980年前后移民家庭,且父母收入水平处于第25个百分位的男孩,成年后的收入平均百分位,
来源:www.aei.org/economics/why-do-the-kids-of-immigrants-move-up-the-economic-ladder/
评论:
1)显著高于45的部分显然无法以均值回归解释;
2)对于近水楼台,移民屏障好像对禀赋没(more...)
【2022-01-30】
@新浪财经 【物价飞涨!#美国火鸡培根涨价30%# #美国一个苹果卖9元#】
@InquilineX: 美国的人均GDP和可支配收入的中位数都是中国的6倍左右,所以要把美国商品的名义价格除以6得到的价格和国内同类商品比才有意义,比如原博说的一个苹果9元,那就相当于国内卖1.5元一个。
@whigzhou: 照你这么说,莫非收入增长的全部意义在且仅在于抵消价格提升?
@tertio:这个说的是心理感受吧,不涉及别的
@whigzhou: *所以要……才有意义*,这(more...)
【2021-09-09】
大学生(蓝线)和大专生(橙)的工资溢价都下降了,大专生下降更多,高中生(灰)相对工资率则大幅上升,
【2021-07-09】
大学的女生比例越来越高,
这事情我听到过几种尝试性的解释,其中只有一种我感觉还说得过去:女生在学校通常比男生更乖更认真,所以,同等条件下,表现会更好,因而也更愿意继续读下去,
我从自己经历中得到的观察与之相符,以前同学中习惯性逃课逃学不交作业受罚的,绝大多数是男生,课堂上前几排座位基本上全是女生,抄作业和借笔记的对象一般也都是女生,
不过,我感觉这只能解释一小部分,另外几个因素还没听有人提到,但可能也很重要:
1)录取门槛降低会自动提高女生比例,因为男女智力平(more...)
【2020-04-09】
@whigzhou: 要想知道一个行业里是否存在网络效应,也就是会不会出现俗话所说的少数超级明星赢家通吃的局面,最简单的观察方法是看工资率的平均值与中位值的差距,因为明星效应会导致工资率分布偏离正态,至少在某个区间呈幂律分布,结果就是将均值拉高到明显超出中位值,我在新书第14章里花了两段文字讨论这个问题,下面几个数字我觉得挺有说服力:
按美国劳工部2018年的数据,若干行业小时工资率的均值与中位值对比:
演员:$29.34 v. $17.54,差67%
播音员:$24.82 v. $1(more...)
【2020-03-08】
@whigzhou: 最近发现越来越多自称libertarian的人在赞同universal basic income,捉急,且不论UBI在伦理上能否站住脚,也不论其长期的文化/社会后果是否可接受(这些以后有空再说),政策构想本身就幼稚的可笑。
不像福利主义者,libertarian们支持UBI的前提是它必须取代其他福利项目,而不是在福利清单上新添一项,因为他们的主要支持理由是效率,和其他有条件专项福利相比,直接发钱既方便,又很少负面(more...)
【2019-05-15】
@密西西比量子猪 贫穷最大的问题是缺钱[喵喵] 女士提问弗里德曼,美国贫穷买不起医疗保险的人怎么办。弗里德曼创造的一套负所得税,已经提上国会。但政客要捆绑上其他福利如住房补贴这些,弗里德曼死活不同意,最后一拍两散撤掉提案,留下一句名言穷人只是缺钱[doge]
弗里德曼强调种种的其他补贴只会导致腐败和低效率,唯一可行的是算清楚要补的钱,越贫穷的人越要有自己选择之权利
@密西西比量子猪:#ECON101# 负所得税=(收入保障数-个人实际收入)×负所得税率。比如负所得税率为50%,三口之家年收(more...)
@whigzhou: 最近的美国藤校申请舞弊案里据说不少好莱坞明星,这和我的预期有所出入,我原以为体育明星会更多,因为我一直觉得,和其他上层精英相比,体育明星在社会地位传承问题上处境比较尴尬,这是因为体育界的禀赋-报酬对应关系十分特殊,(据我粗略观察)报酬随禀赋提高而上升的曲线形状呈反L形,即大部分区段很低平,右侧末尾段突然上翘,意味着只有像乔丹这样的极小一撮成为富人,其他都是普通中产者,这一特点,使得体育明星很难指望下一代保持与自己相近的社会地位。
(more...)【2018-09-19】
@whigzhou: 1971年的阿拉斯加土著权利主张解决法案(Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act)可能是有史以来最大规模的按人头发钱方案,8万土著得到了14亿美元现金(相当于今天的87亿)和18万平方公里土地(通过13家地区公司和200多家村级公司的股份持有),这些土地上不久前刚发现石油,两代人过去了,阿拉斯加土著的整体经济/社会状况(相对于其他美国人)是否提升了?我花了好几十分钟,没搜到贴切的资(more...)
The Lottery
彩票
作者:Gregory Cochran @ 2015-04-22
译者:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
校对:沈沉(@沈沉-Henrysheen)
来源:West Hunter,https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/the-lottery/
Lotteries can be useful natural experiments; we can use them to test the accuracy of standard sociological theories, in which rich people buy their kids extra smarts, bigger brains, better health, etc.
彩票可以视为一种有用的自然实验。我们可以用它们来检测标准社会学理论的准确度。这些理论认为,富人能给他们的孩子买到额外的智慧、更大的大脑和更健康的身体,等等。
David Cesarini, who I met at that Ch(more...)
——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——
【2016-05-24】
@whigzhou: 自由市场制度下,财产的初始分配根本不重要,整个宾夕法尼亚的土地起初全归小威廉·潘恩一人所有,这一事实对该州后来的社会结构有多大影响?彩票发明那么多年了,每年都有人中亿万大奖,你听说过哪个显贵家族是靠祖上中彩票发达的?
@whigzhou: 在《儿子照样升起》第15章里,Clark举了两项有关意外横财是否影响家庭长期命运的研究,结论都是:完全没有统计上可观察的正面影响。其中(more...)
“小小奇迹”不再:美国劳动收入占比下降
A Bit of a Miracle No More:The Decline of the Labor Share
作者:Roc Armenter @ 2015-三季刊
译者:Veidt(@Veidt)
校对:混乱阈值(@混乱阈值)
来源:Business Review,https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/business-review/2015/q3/brq315_a_bit_of_a_miracle_no_more.pdf
How is income divided between labor and capital? Every dollar of income earned by U.S. households can be classified as either labor earnings — wages and other forms of compensation — or capital earnings — interest or dividend payments and rent. The split between labor and capital income informs economists’ thinking on several topics and plays a key role in debates regarding income inequality and long-run economic growth. Unfortunately, distinguishing between labor and capital income is not always an easy task.
收入是如何在劳动和资本之间分配的?美国家庭所赚取的每一块钱都可以被归类为劳动收入(工资或其它形式的劳动补偿)或资本收益(利息、股利和租金等)。收入在劳动和资本之间的分配为经济学家们关于许多经济学议题的思考提供了重要信息,并且在关于收入不平等和长期经济增长这些问题的争论中扮演着核心角色。不幸的是,将劳动收入与资本收入区分开并非总是一件易事。
Until recently, the division between labor and capital income had not received much attention. The reason was quite simple: Labor’s share never ventured far from 62 percent of total U.S. income for almost 50 years — through expansions, recessions, high and low inflation, and the long transition from an economy primarily based on manufacturing to one mainly centered on services.
一直以来,区分劳动收入和资本收入的问题并没有受到太大关注,直到最近才有所改观。原因很简单:在将近50年中,美国劳动收入在总收入中所占的比例从来不会偏离62%这个数字太远——不论经济是在扩张还是衰退,也不论通胀率是高是低,在美国经济从以制造业为基础向主要以服务业为核心的漫长转变过程中,这个比例一直很稳定。
As it happened, the overall labor share remained stable as large forces pulling it in opposite directions canceled each other out — a coincidence that John Maynard Keynes famously called “a bit of a miracle.” But the new millennium marked a turning point: Labor’s share began a pronounced fall that continues today.
劳动收入占比在多种强大力量的反向拉扯和相互抵消之下总体保持了稳定这件事情本身——按照约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯的著名说法——可以称得上是个“小小奇迹”。但是新千年的到来却标志着一个重要的转折点:劳动收入占比开始明显下降,并且这个趋势一直持续到了现在。
Why did the labor share lose its “miraculous” stability and embark on a steep decline? To investigate this shift, economists must first be sure they are measuring the labor share correctly. Could measurement problems distort our understanding of what has happened to the labor share over time?
为什么劳动收入占比会失去它“奇迹般”的稳定性而开始急剧下降?要研究这一转变,经济学家们的首要任务是确保他们测量劳动收入占比的方法是准确的。测量方法存在问题会歪曲我们对于长期以来劳动收入占比所发生的变化的理解吗?
In this article, I explain the inherent challenges in measuring the labor share and introduce several alternative definitions designed to address some of the measurement problems. As we will see, the overall trend is confirmed across a wide range of definitions.
在这篇文章中,我将解释在测量劳动收入占比时所面临的内在挑战,并介绍几种旨在解决其中一些测量问题的替代性定义。正如我们将看到的,基于一系列不同定义的测量结果都证实了劳动收入占比总体上的下降趋势。
Economists do not yet have a full understanding of the causes behind the labor share’s decline. We can make some progress, though, by noting the impact of wage and productivity trends and shifts between industries. Finally, I discuss several popular hypotheses, based on concurrent phenomena, such as widening wage inequality and globalization, that may account for the labor share’s sharp decline.
经济学家们至今还未能全面地理解劳动收入占比下降背后的原因。即便如此,通过研究工资和生产率的变化趋势以及产业的变迁,我们仍然可以取得一些进展。最后,我将讨论一些流行的假设。这些基于诸如薪资不平等程度加深以及全球化等并发现象的假设也许能解释劳动收入占比的急剧下降。
MEASURING THE U.S. LABOR SHARE
测量美国的劳动收入占比
By construction, all income accounted for in the U.S. economy must be earned either by capital or labor. In some cases, we can easily see whether our income comes from labor or capital: when we earn a wage or a bonus through our labor or when we earn interest from our savings or investment account, which is attributed to capital income, despite the fact that most of us would not think of ourselves as investors.
从定义上说,美国经济中任何的收入要么被资本赚取了,要么就是被劳动赚取了[i]。在一些情形中,我们可以很容易地看出我们的收入是来自于劳动还是资本:当我们通过劳动赚到一份工资或者奖金时,这部分收入显然来自于劳动;虽然我们中的大部分人并不认为自己是投资者,但当我们从储蓄或投资账户中获得利息或投资收益时,这部分收入很明显应该被归为资本收入。
However, it is not always immediately apparent that all income eventually accrues to either capital or labor. For example, when we buy our groceries — creating income for the grocer — we are only vaguely aware that we are also paying the producers, farm workers, and transporters as well as for the harvesters, trucks, trains, coolers, and other capital equipment involved in producing and distributing what we purchase. However, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) constructs the national income and product accounts, it combines data from expenditures and income to ensure that every dollar spent is also counted as a dollar earned by either capital or labor.
然而,所有的收入最终都会被归为资本收入或劳动收入这一点并不总是那么显而易见。举个例子,当我们从杂货店里买东西时——这显然为杂货店主创造了收入——我们仅仅模糊地意识到我们所付的钱同样也为货物的生产者、农场工人、运输工人创造了收入,除此以外,我们还为投资于收割机、卡车、制冷装置和其它一些参与我们所购买货物的生产和分销过程的设备的资本创造了收入。而国家经济分析局(BEA)在构建国民收入和生产账户时将来自支出和来自收入的数据合并在一起,以保证任何一美元的支出也同样要么被资本赚取,要么被劳动赚取。
Of course, nothing is ever so simple economic statistics. First, we lack the detail necessary to split some components of the income data between labor and capital returns. As I (more...)
——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——
Where the Middle Class Goes to Die
哪里的中产阶级没活路?
作者:Kevin D. Williamson @ 2014-9-18
译者:Marcel ZHANG(@马赫塞勒张)
校对:史祥莆(@史祥莆),慕白(@李凤阳他说)
来源:National Review,http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388336/where-middle-class-goes-die-kevin-d-williamson
In progressive Manhattan, inequality is maxed out.
在进步主义盛行的曼哈顿,不平等已达到空前程度。
A new report being released today by the Census Bureau finds that Manhattan has the highest level of income inequality in the United States. That is not entirely surprising, though it would also not have been surprising if it had been San Francisco or another progressive fiefdom.
美国人口调查局(Census (more...)
——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——
The Middle-Class Squeeze
夹缝中的中产阶级
编辑:Jennifer Erickson @ 2014-9-24
译者:松旭斋天胜(@松旭斋天胜)
校对:安德(@ HuZhenbo)、带菜刀的诗人(@带菜刀的诗人)
制图:amen(@治愈系历史)
来源:美国进步中心(Center for American Progress),https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MiddeClassSqueeze-INTRO.pdf
A Picture of Stagnant Incomes, Rising Costs, and What We Can Do to Strengthen America’s Middle Class
面对收入停滞、生活费高涨的局面,怎么做才能巩固中产阶级
【插图】
America’s middle class is being squeezed by stagnant—and in many cases declining—incomes and rising costs.
美国的中产阶级正被停滞甚至往往是减少的收入和高涨的生活费压得喘不过气。
Why the middle-class squeeze matters
为何需要关注中产阶级重压
The American middle class is in trouble.
美国中产阶级有麻烦了。
The middle-class share of national income has fallen, middle-class wages are stagnant, and the middle class in the United States is no longer the world’s wealthiest.
美国中产阶级收入在国民收入中占比减少,薪资停滞,他们已不再是世界上最富有的中产。
But income is only one side of the story. The cost of being in the middle class—and of maintaining a middle-class standard of living—is rising fast too. For fundamental needs such as child care and health care, costs have risen dramatically over the past few decades, taking up larger shares of family budgets. The reality is that the middle class is being squeezed.
但收入只是问题的一方面。做一个中产阶级、并维持中产阶级生活品质的成本,正在飞涨。过去几十年中,儿童保育和医疗保障等基本生活需求的费用迅速飙升,在家庭预算中比重增大。现实告诉我们,中产阶级正被压得喘不过气来。
As this report will show, for a married couple with two children, the costs of key elements of middle-class security—child care, higher education, health care, housing, and retirement—rose by more than $10,000 in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012, at a time when this family’s income was stagnant.
正如本报告随后将展示的那样,对于一对育有两个子女的夫妇而言,从2000年到2012年的12年间,界定中产阶级的那些关键元素的花费,即儿童保育、高等教育、医疗保障、住房和退休保障的成本,上涨了10000美元,而与此同时,家庭收入却停滞不前。
As sharp as this squeeze can be, the pain does not stop at one family, or even at millions of families. Because of the critical role that middle-class consumers play in creating aggregate demand, the American economy is in trouble when the American middle class is in trouble. And the long-term health of the U.S. economy is at risk if financially squeezed families cannot afford—and smart public policies do not support—developing the next generation of America’s workforce. It is this workforce that will lead the United States in an increasingly open and competitive global economy.
如此严峻的挤迫并不止于一个家庭,或者甚至是百万个家庭。因为中产阶级消费者在创造总需求中扮演着关键角色,当中产阶级出问题,美国经济也随之陷入麻烦。进一步来说,如果经济承受重压的家庭无法负担培养美国下一代劳动力的费用,公共政策也不提供适时的辅助,那么美国经济的长期发展也将处于危险之中。毕竟,未来是由这一代劳动力在更加开放、竞争也更激烈的全球经济体系中领导美国。
This report provides a snapshot of the American middle class and those struggling to become a part of it. It focuses on six key pillars that can help define security for households: jobs, early childhood programs, higher education, health care, housing, and retirement. Each chapter is both descriptive and prescriptive—detailing both how the middle class is doing and what policies can help it do better.
本报告提供了美国中产阶级和正为之而奋斗的人们的一幅速写。它将重点放在对家庭保障起决定作用的六根重要支柱上:就业、儿童保育、高等教育、医疗保障、住房和退休保障。每一部分都在描述现象之余提供建议,不仅详细阐述中产阶级目前的状况,也详尽分析怎样的政策可帮其改善现状。
Defining the middle class
定义中产阶级
Statistically, when we talk about the middle class, we generally mean the middle three quintiles of American households by income—those making between the 20th and 80th percentiles of the income distribution. In reality, however, being middle class in America is at its core about economic security.
统计学上,当我们讨论中产阶级时,一般是指全美收入水平处于中间60%的家庭,即落在20%到80%区间内的家庭。但实际上,美国中产阶级的核心在于家庭经济保障能力。
As Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) wrote in the 2011 report “Saving the American Dream,” “Most of us don’t expect to be rich or famous, but we do expect a living wage and good American benefits for a hard day’s work.”
正如参议员Tom Harkin(民主党,爱荷华州)在其2011年题为《挽救美国梦》的报告中写道:“我们中的大部分不求成为富翁或是出名,但我们都希望每日的辛勤工作可以换来足以负担生活开支的工资和良好的社会福利保障。”
At the Ce(more...)
The importance of the middle class to economic growth 中产阶级对经济增长的重要性 Rising inequality is not simply a question of distribution; it also poses real questions for how our economy operates. The increasing resources available to the wealthiest Americans have created demand for such luxuries as private jets—which creates jobs building those jets—but the declining purchasing power of middle-class Americans means that there is less demand for goods and services more broadly in the economy. 不平等加剧不只是个分配问题,它也是为经济运转方式带来了问题。最富有美国人的财富持续增长催生了私人飞机等奢侈品需求,当然,这创造了更多飞机制造业的职位,但是中产阶级购买力下降意味着商品和服务的总需求减少了。 A recent analysis showed that giving $1 to a low-income household produces three times as much consumption as giving $1 to a high-income household. And it is certainly true that increasing the concentration of wealth means more jobs managing finances and fewer jobs making the goods that middle-class consumers once bought in numbers that drove much of our economic growth. 近期的一项分析显示,低收入家庭收入每增加1美元所产生的消费是高收入家庭的三倍。财富集中意味着更多的理财业务职位【编注:这一断言并无道理,财富集中可能增加也可能减少理财职位,要看集中的结果是增加还是减少了财富规模达到需要理财的程度的人数】,和更少的制造业职位,这些工作曾为所制造的产品曾被中产阶级消费者大量购买,而正是这些消费极大地推动了经济增长。 CAP outlined the economic importance of a strong and growing middle class—and the concerns for our economy from growing inequality—in a 2012 report, “The American Middle Class, Income Inequality, and the Strength of the Economy.” The report details the importance of the middle class to human capital, stable demand, entrepreneurship, and support for institutions. 美国进步中心曾在2012年一份题为《美国中产阶级、收入不均及经济实力》的报告中概述了强大且持续增长的中产阶级对于经济的重要性,也说明了扩大的贫富差距对经济造成的问题。该份报告详尽分析了中产阶级对人力资本、稳定的需求、创业的重要性,以及对现行社会制度的支持。【编注:此处institutions含义不明,可能是指制度,也可能是指组织机构】Squeeze part II: A snapshot of rising costs 重压之第二部分:成本上升情况速览 While real incomes have been stagnant or declining in recent years, the other side of the story is the increase in the costs of various items that define a middle-class standard of living. Not only have families’ costs for things from higher education to health care increased rapidly relative to overall consumer inflation, but these costs are also consuming a growing share of family budgets, leaving less and less room for discretionary spending and saving. 近年来实际收入停滞甚至减少的同时,定义中产阶级生活标准的各元素成本却在增长。在家庭支出中,高等教育和医疗保障等项的支出不仅相对消费者物价指数急速增长,它们在家庭预算中比重也在扩大,给自由消费和存款留下的空间越来越少。 When looking at the changes in consumer price indices for core elements of middle-class security, it is painfully easy to see the squeeze in action; prices for many cornerstones of middle-class security have risen dramatically at the same time that real incomes have fallen. 令人心痛的是,在一份与中产阶级经济保障能力相关元素的价格指数变动图表中,可以非常直观地看到压力的存在。对中产阶级经济保障能力至关重要的各项物价飙升,但与此同时,实际收入却在减少。 【插图】 As stark as the data appear when comparing stagnant or falling incomes to rising prices, they are even worse than the Consumer Price Index above might suggest. 虽然停滞或减少的收入和飞升的物价在数据上已十分明显,但实际情况比上图中消费者物价指数所显示的更糟糕。 Let’s consider what has happened to the finances of a typical middle-class family since 2000. 让我们来看看对于一个普通中产阶级家庭来说,2000年以来都有哪些变化。 The median family saw its income fall by 8 percent between 2000 and 2012. Even when we look at just married couples with two children—a type of family that tends to have higher incomes—median income was virtually frozen between 2000 and 2012. 处于中间的家庭在2000到2012年间收入降低了8%。即便我们只把目光放在通常有更高收入的育有两个子女的夫妇上,处于中间的家庭收入在2000到2012年间也仅是持平。 At the same time, this type of family also faced a severe middle-class squeeze as the costs of key elements of security rose dramatically, including child care costs—which grew by 37 percent—and health care costs—both employee premiums and out-of-pocket costs—which grew by 85 percent. 与此同时,这一类家庭也面临着巨大压力:中产保障关键元素的价格急剧升高,儿童保育费用上涨了37%,医疗保障(包括就业医保和自费医疗)费用上涨了85%。 In fact, investing in the basic pillars of middle-class security—child care, housing, and health care, as well as setting aside modest savings for retirement and college—cost an alarming $10,600 more in 2012 than it did in 2000. 事实上,2000到2012年,花费在中产保障关键元素(儿童保育、住房、医疗保障以及为退休和大学存款)上的费用上涨了令人震惊的10,600美元。 Put another way, in 12 years, this household’s income was stagnant—rising by less than 1 percent—while basic pillars of middle-class security rose by more than 30 percent. As the cost of basic elements of middle-class security rose, the money available for everything else—from groceries to clothing to emergency savings—fell by $5,500. 换句话说,12年间,家庭收入没变,或仅提高不到1%,而花费在中产保障上的钱却多了30%。随着各项基本元素的成本上涨,留给其他花销的钱——比如食品杂货、衣服和应急存款等,减少了5500美元。 And while for the purposes of this example we have assumed this household kept retirement savings constant, data about worryingly low savings confirm that for millions of families, their retirement funds are bearing much of the pain of the squeeze. 然而,虽然我们在上述例子中假定该家庭每年留给退休保障的钱维持不变,但令人担忧的低储蓄数据却表明,对于数以百万计的家庭而言,退休保障承受着大部分压力。 【插图】 注:因四舍五入,数据可能略有偏差。2000年至2012年数据根据现有最准确数据估算。详见本系列报告的方法论部分。 来源:见系列报告的方法论部分。 The data paint a clear picture: The middle class is being squeezed. So it should come as no surprise that in a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 57 percent of Americans responded that they think their incomes are falling behind the growing cost of living, up from 47 percent in 2006. In fact, the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as middle class has fallen to 44 percent, down from 53 percent in 2008. 数据清晰地描绘出这样的图景:中产阶级正受到重压。2014年皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)的一项调查显示,57%的美国人认为他们的收入赶不上生活成本的增长速度,而2006年如此认为的人只占47%。这样的结果在意料之中。事实上,认为自己属于中产阶级的美国人由2008年的53%降低到了如今的44%。 Policies to alleviate the squeeze 减轻重压的政策 Understanding that middle-class families are clearly squeezed—with adverse effects on our entire economy—we must craft policies to alleviate the squeeze. This requires two things: growing incomes and containing costs. 既然已经了解了中产阶级面临的困难和它将对我们整个经济带来的负面影响,我们必须设计出合理的政策减轻他们的压力。这包括两方面:增加收入和限制支出。 Jobs 就业 Given that the majority of middle-class families derive their incomes from jobs—as opposed to investments—improving our lackluster jobs picture is the first task to address the middle-class squeeze. To do this, we need to invest in a dynamic economy powered by skilled workers who operate in an environment that lets them and their businesses compete at home and abroad. 鉴于大部分中产阶级收入来源于就业而非投资,减轻压力的第一步便是改善就业环境。我们需要构建一个由技术劳动者支撑的、充满活力的经济环境,让劳动者和企业无论是在本国还是在国际上都具有竞争力。 Doing so will require myriad policies outlined in depth in CAP’s long-term growth strategy, 300 Million Engines of Growth: A Middle-Out Plan for Jobs, Business, and a Growing Economy. Five areas that would directly help the jobs and income pictures in the shorter term include policies to: 为此,美国进步中心在题为《促进增长的三亿个发动机:中产阶级辐射计划,就业、企业和繁荣经济》的长期发展战略中列举了多项政策。
——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——
Shocking data on wealth inequality
哗众取宠的财富不平等数据
作者:Scott Sumner @ 2015-5-18
译者:Veidt 校对:小聂
来源:Library of Economics and Liberty,http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2015/05/shocking_new_da.html
Imagine living in a country where the top 30% of the population had roughly 25 times as much wealth per person as the bottom 30% of the population. That seems pretty unequal, doesn’t it?
设想一下,你生活在这样一个国家,其中最富有的30%人口的个人财富大约是最贫穷的30%的人口的25倍。看起来挺不平等的,不是吗?
Now suppose the same statistics applied, but every person at any given age had exactly the same wealth. All 18 year olds had the same wealth as other members of their cohort, as did all 60 year olds. But 18 year olds had much less wealth than 60 year olds.
现在假设同样的统计结果,并且所有年龄相同的人拥有的财富也相同。所有18岁的人和他们的同龄人拥有一样多的财富,所有60岁的人也都拥有相同的(more...)
Dear Dave, My wife and I have just started getting on track with our money. We have $2,000 in savings, and the only debt we have is our house and two cars. I work in the oil and gas industry and make about $180,000 a year, but things are pretty volatile right now. We're upside down on both vehicles, and we owe $39,000 on one and about $48,000 on the other. Under the circumstances, should we go ahead and build a fully funded emergency fund or work on paying off the cars? Kendall 亲爱的Dave,我和妻子才刚刚开始赚钱。我们有两千美元的储蓄,仅有的债务是我们的房贷和两辆车的车贷。我在油气行业工作,每年的收入大约有18万美元,但现在形势很不稳定。为了买这两辆车我们已经把钱都花光了,在其中一辆车上我们欠了39,000美元,另一辆车则欠了48,000美元。在这种情况下,我们是应该把赚来的钱用于设立一个充足的应急基金呢,还是用来偿还两辆汽车的欠款呢?Kendall Dear Kendall, Are you kidding me? Sell the cars, dude! You need to go to Kelly Blue Book's website right now, and find out what your cars are really worth. Then, put them on the market as a private sale. You'll get thousands more selling them that way than you will at a dealership. You'll have to talk to a local credit union or bank for a small loan to cover the difference, plus a little bit more so you guys can get a couple of little beaters to drive for a while. 亲爱的Kendall, 你不是在跟我开玩笑吧?赶快把车都卖了吧,我的朋友! 你现在要做的是去Kelly蓝皮书的网站查一下你的车到底值多少钱,然后以私人销售的名义把它们挂到汽车交易市场上。以这种方式出售,你得到的钱会比你通过汽车经纪商出售多几千美元。你还需要去找一家本地信用合作社或者银行谈谈,借一笔小额贷款来弥补差额,并让你们能够买两辆小“甲壳虫”暂时开一段时间。【译注:此处beaters疑为beatles之讹。】I'm going to go out on a limb and guess there aren't very many similar letters in China. Like the advice columnist "Dave", I have a temperament that makes it easy to save. But as a libertarian I favor allowing people like Kendall to spend their money when and how they wish. 这里我想斗胆猜测一下,中国应该不会有太多类似的读者来信。和上面那位建议专栏的作者Dave一样,我在性格上倾向于储蓄。但是作为一名自由意志主义者,我倾向于允许Kendall这样的人按自己的意愿去决定何时、如何花自己的钱。 The only qualification is that I think people should be forced to save enough to cover the things that society would otherwise have to pay (basic retirement, medical, etc.) 我认为唯一合理的限制是,假如因为人们因自己的储蓄不足,而需要整个社会来付出代价时,强制性储蓄才是必须的(例如基本的退休工资,医疗保障等)。 If we believe that people should be free to choose when to spend their wealth, we will end up with far more wealth inequality than if we try to force everyone to consume the "right amount" of each year's income. But I don't see how that sort of wealth inequality could be considered a problem. 如果我们相信人们拥有选择何时花掉自己所拥有财富的自由,那么相比强制所有人都花掉每年收入中“正确比例”的钱,最终的财富不平等程度会高得多。但我完全不觉得这种原因导致的财富不平等会是个问题。 Inevitably some will misconstrue what I am saying here. Just to be clear, even accounting for all the factors I mentioned (age, saving preferences, etc) there is still lots more inequality due to big differences in lifetime earnings (or inherited wealth.) So this post is not trying to suggest that inequality is not a problem. 难免有人会误解我的意思,所以我要澄清一下,即便考虑了上面提到的所有这些因素(年龄、储蓄偏好等)之后,由人们生命周期中巨大的收入差异(或是财产继承上的差异)所造成的不平等仍然是巨大的。这篇文章并不是想说不平等不是个问题。 Rather I'm suggesting that if inequality is a problem, we would not be able to know that from the wealth inequality data that is presented in the media. And that's because even if wealth inequality were not a problem at all, the actual inequality of wealth would look shocking large, with 100 to 1 disparities easily accounted for by nothing more than differences in age and saving propensities. 实际上我更想表达的是,假如不平等的确是一个问题,我们并不能从媒体上出现的那些有关财富不平等的数据里得知这一点。因为即使在那些财富不平等根本不算个问题的情况下,实际数据上的财富不平等程度看起来也会很惊人,仅仅是年龄和储蓄偏好上的一些差异就能轻易地造成100比1这样的差距。 The only data that truly gets at the inequality question is consumption inequality, which is very rarely discussed in the media. 对于不平等问题,唯一切中要害的数据,其实是消费的不平等,但有关后者却极少在媒体上被讨论。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。
——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——