Economic原文翻译Economics focus

1、Economics focus经济焦点Dont look down不要向下看The poor like taxing the rich less than you would think穷人不像你想的那样喜欢富人被征税【穷人不像你想得那样喜欢征富人的税】Aug 13th 2011 | from the print editionIN THE 1939 classic Western “Stagecoach”, a villainous banker with a bag of e mbezzled cash in his lap frets about the state of the Ame

2、rican economy: “Our national debt is something shocking!” he complains. That year American public debt was just over two-fifths of GDP. This year, the IMF reckons, it will be just over 98%, rising to over 102% in 2012. Were he still around, the unscrupulous banker might have struggled to express his

3、 outrage, although he might have found solace in the fact that Americas August 2nd deal to increase the debt ceiling envisages $2.4 trillion in spending cuts but no tax hikes. This strikes many, both outside the United States and within it, as odd. A Democratic congressman called the debt deal a “su

4、gar-coated Satan sandwich”.1939年在经典的西部”驿站马车”里, 一个腐败的银行家, 腿上放着一袋子的贪污款, 他对美国经济的现状十分担忧:” 我们国家的债务规模实在太吓人了!” 他抱怨道. 那一年, 美国的公共债务仅仅占到GDP的五分之二. 今年, 国际货币基金组织IMF承认, 美国公共债务的GDP占比达到了98%, 预计2012年将超过102%. 如果他现在还在世的话, 这个无耻的银行家可能会费尽心思的来表达他的愤怒, 尽管8.2号美国的提高债务上限, 开支消减2.4万亿但无税务增加的一揽子计划会给他一丝安慰. 这使得美国国内外一片惊讶. 一位民主党国会议员将这

5、个债务计划称为”糖衣魔鬼三明治”.It does, however, loosely reflect longstanding differences between Americans attitudes to taxation and those in much of the rest of the rich world. America is far less inclined than many of its rich-world peers to use taxation and redistribution to reduce inequality. The OECD, a thi

6、nk-tank, reckons that taxation eats up a little less than 30% of the average Americans total compensation, compared with nearly 50% in Germany and France. Americas top federal income-tax rate of 35% is lower than in many other advanced economies (although most Americans also pay state taxes. Britain

7、s top tax rate is 50%. Swedes and Danes acquiesce to tax rates that would outrage many Americans: Swedens top rate is 57% and Denmarks is 55%. Unsurprisingly, the American state is also less generous to the poor. Unemployment benefits in the United States replace a smaller share of income, and run o

8、ut more quickly, than in most European countries.但是, 这确实隐约反应出了长期以来美国对赋税的态度与其他发达国家中的大部分不同. 美国远不像他许多发达国家的同僚们那样喜欢用赋税和再分配来减少不平等. 智囊团OECD表明, 在平均美国总补贴中, 赋税占比不到30%, 而德国和法国几乎为50%. 美国最高联邦收入税率为35%, 比许多其他发达经济体都低(尽管大部分美国人还要交纳州所得税. 英国的最高税率为50%. 瑞典和丹麦默许的税率会激怒大部分美国人: 瑞典的最高税率为57%, 丹麦的是55%. 不出所料, 美国对待穷人也没那么慷慨. 美国的失业

9、补助比起大部分欧洲国家来说仅占收入的一小部分并且领取的时间短.The differences in attitude towards redistributive taxes are not just between countries but also within them, and economists have several explanations as to why. When it comes to differences between countries, social cohesion plays a major role. Broadly speaking, count

10、ries that are more ethnically or racially homogeneous are more comfortable with the state seeking to mitigate inequality by transferring some resources from richer to poorer people through the fiscal system. This may explain why Swedes complain less about high taxes than the inhabitants of a country

11、 of immigrants such as America. But it also suggests that even societies with a tradition of high taxes (such as those in Scandinavia might find that their citizens would become less willing to finance generous welfare programmes were immigrants to make up a greater share of their populations. Immig

12、ration can also subtly alter the overall attitude towards such matters in another way. A 2008 study by economists at Harvard found evidence that immigrants attitudes towards taxation and redistribution were rooted in the places they had left.对再分配的赋税的态度分歧不仅仅存在于国家之间也存在于美国国内, 经济学家们对此也有一些解释. 对于解释国家之间的分歧

13、, 社会凝聚力是主要因素. 宽泛的讲, 多族裔或多种族国家政府更愿意利用资源转移的方式来试图减少不平等, 即在财政系统中将一些资源从富人手中转移到穷人手中. 这也许解释了为什么瑞典人对高税收的抱怨比像美国等国家移民的非居民少. 但是这也表明, 在哪怕是拥有高税收传统的社会(诸如斯堪的纳维亚中可能会发现, 他们的市民不大愿意对慷慨的社会福利项目进行注资,而在这些社会中, 移民人口在总人口中占了较大一部分.移民者们也可以通过其他方法来改变大家针对这种事情的态度. 哈弗经济学家在2008年的一项研究表明移民者对待税收和再分配的观点早在他们未移民前就形成了.Social divisions also

14、play a role in determining who within a society prefers greater redistributive taxation. In America blackswho are more likely to benefit from welfare programmes than richer whitesare much more favourably disposed towards redistribution through the fiscal system than white people are. A 2001 study lo

15、oked at over 20 years of data from Americas General Social Survey and found that whereas 47% of blacks thought welfare spending was too low, only 16% of whites did. Only a quarter of blacks thought it was too high, compared with 55% of whites. In general (though not always, those who identify with a

16、 group that benefits from redistribution seem to want more of it.在决定社会中哪些人更倾向于重新分配税收中, 社会分化也扮演了一定的角色. 在美国, 黑人-在福利项目中比富有的白人获得好处的可能性更大-要比白人更倾向于通过财政系统再分配. 2001年一项基于来源于美国总体社会调查的20年数据的研究表明相对于黑人中有47%的人认为国家对福利支出太少, 白人中仅有16%的人如此认为. 通常情况(尽管还有特例, 那些identify 在一个特定的阶层并从重新分配中获利的人似乎会想要更多的福利.Paradoxically, as the

17、share of the population that receives benefits in a given area rises, support for welfare in the area falls. A new NBER paper finds evidence for an even more intriguing and provocative hypothesis. Its authors note that those near but not at the bottom of the income distribution are often deeply ambi

18、valent about greater redistribution.矛盾的是, 当一个特定区域中获得福利待遇的人在总人口的占比上升时, 这一地区对福利的支持会下降. NBER一份新的研究报告提出了一个甚至更耐人寻味并且具有挑畔性的假设. 其作者发现那些接近但是并不处于收入分配最低端的人对更多的再分配有着深深的复杂情绪.Economists have usually explained poor peoples counter-intuitive disdain for something that might make them better off by invoking income

19、mobility. Joe the Plumber might not be making enough to be affected by proposed hikes in tax rates on those making more than $250,000 a year, they argue, but he hopes some day to be one of them. This theory explains some cross-country differences, but it would also predict increased support for redi

20、stribution as income inequality widens. Y et the opposite has happened in America, Britain and other rich countries where inequality has risen over the past 30 years.经济学家们经常用呼吁收入流动性使他们生活的好些来解释这些穷人的反直觉蔑视情绪. 他们辩驳道, 水暖工Joe可能挣得不够多, 提高对收入每年高于25万美元的人税率的提议不会影响到他, 但是他希望有一天自己也能成为其中一员. 该理论解释了一些全国性的差异,但是它也预计随着

21、收入不平等现象越来越严重, 对再分配的支持也会越来越多. 然而在美国, 英国和其他富有国家发生的却正好相反, 这些国家在过去30年间不平等现象不断加剧.Never mind the top, avoid the bottom上层最好, 底部不要Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people dont like to be at the botto

22、m. One paradoxical consequence of this “last-place aversion” is that some poor people may be vociferously opposed to the kinds of policies that would actually raise their own income a bit but that might also push those who are poorer than them into comparable or higher positions. The authors ran a s

23、eries of experiments where students were randomly allotted sums of money, separated by $1, and informed about the “income distribution” that resulted. They were then given another $2, which they could give either to the person directly above or below them in the distribution.因为人们希望晋级到经济阶梯的上部,而不是反对再分配,这篇新报告的作者争辩道, 人们不喜欢处于经济阶层的底部. “厌恶最后”的一个矛盾结果是一些穷人可能特别反对某些政策-这些政策只会稍微的提高了他们的收入但是同时也会将那些比自己更穷的人提升至和自己差不多甚至更高的收入水平上. 该作者进行了一些列的实验, 实验中的学生们随即的得到一笔钱, 都是1美元, 并被告知”收入再分配”的结果. 然后他们又被给予了2美元, 这笔钱他们可以直接给予在分配中比自己高或者低的人.In keeping with the notion of “last-place aversion”, t