经济学人 | 富要过三代了？

本篇预计学习

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60

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富贵，如果是可以代代相传的呢？

我们常说富不过三代，但是今天的美国人民却发现，他们的精英人士可能会把自己的成功遗传下去……

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America's new aristocracy

美国的新贵族

As the importance of intellectual capital grows, privilege has become increasingly heritable.

随着知识资本越来越重要，特权也越来越具可继承性。

【1】When the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination line up on stage for their first debate in August, there may be three contenders whose fathers also ran for president. Whoever wins may face the wife of a former president next year. It is odd that a country founded on the principle of hostility to inherited status should be so tolerant of dynasties. Because America never had kings or lords, it sometimes seems less inclined to worry about signs that its elite is calcifying.

privilege：特权

heritable：可继承的，可遗传的。herit是一个词根，表示继承，inherit是动词（人）继承，disinherit是剥夺继承权，剥夺应有的权力，inheritance是名词遗传、继承。另外heir是继承人的意思。

nomination：提名，任命

contender：争夺者，竞争者

odd：古怪的，怪异的；可用的

hostility：敌意，敌对状态

dynasties：朝代；王朝( dynasty的名词复数 )

elite：精英

calcify：（使）钙化，（使）硬化( calcify的现在分词 

获得共和党总统提名的候选人在八月即将迎来他们首轮公开辩论，其中三位参选者的父亲也曾参选总统。无论谁赢，届时都可能应战一位前总统夫人。这很奇怪，美国一向仇视继承来的地位，这样一个国家竟对家族政治如此容忍。因为美国从来没有国王或贵族，他们似乎并不太担心精英阶层的逐渐固化。

［2］Tomas Jefferson drew a distinction between a natural aristocracy of the virtuous and talented, which was a blessing to a nation, and an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, which would slowly strangle it. Jefferson himself was a hybrid of these tow types --- a brilliant lawyer who inherited 11,000 acres and 135 slaves from his father-in-law --- but the distinction proved durable. When the robber barons accumulated fortunes that made European princes envious, the combination of their own philanthropy, their children’s extravagance and federal trust-busting meant that Americans never discovered where the elite could reliably reproduce themselves.

draw a distinction：进行区分，加以区别。

I don't think you can draw a distinction between Lucy and Lily. 

我认为你没法把lucy和lily俩区分开来。

aristocracy：贵族，贵族品质，上层社会

virtuous：善良的，有道德的

blessing：（上帝的）祝福；祝圣( bless的现在分词)

hybrid：杂种；混合的

father-in-law：岳父，公公，继父；类似的mother-in-law就是岳母，婆婆。

durable：耐用的；持久的

robber barons：强盗式资本家，强盗式贵族

philanthropy：博爱；慈善活动，慈善事业

extravagance：奢侈品，奢侈，挥霍

trust-busting：反托拉斯活动

reliably：可靠地，确实地

汤姆斯•杰佛逊认为贵族分两种，一种是天生的贵族，他们高尚而且聪慧，是国家之福；另一种是人造的贵族，他们的贵气来自他们的财富和出身，而这些反过来会扼杀他们的贵气。杰佛逊本人则是这两种贵族的结合——一个从其岳父那里继承了11，000英亩土地和135名奴隶的杰出律师——但是这一区分仍被长期接受。当那些强盗式资本家积累的财富足以让欧洲贵族都忌妒的时候，他们热衷慈善，但又纵容自己的孩子们过度奢侈，再加上联邦反托拉斯活动，三者形成了一股合力，使美国人相信精英们不可能自我复制。

［3］Now they are beginning to find out, because today’s rich increasingly pass on to their children an asset that cannot be frittered away in a few nights at a casino. It is far more useful than wealth, and invulnerable to inheritance tax. It is brains.

fritter away：消磨，浪费，挥霍一空

Don't fritter away your money on things you do not really need.

不要把钱浪费在你并不真正需要的东西上。

casino：赌场，俱乐部，娱乐城

invulnerable：vulnerable是脆弱的，易受伤的，in作为前缀表示否定，invulnerable就是不易受伤的，刀枪不入的，无懈可击的。近义词有impregnable。able是常见的形容词后缀，表示能……的，会……的，像是avoidable可避免的，acceptable，可接受的。invulnerable position是不败之地。

No one still thinks iOS is invulnerable to malware, right?

没有人还认为iOS不会受到恶意软件的攻击，对吧？

现在他们渐渐意识到，今天的富人们越来越多传给他们孩子的资产不再是几个晚上在赌场就能挥霍一空的钱财，而是更有用的，还不用交遗产税的真正的财富。它就是头脑。

Matches made in New Haven

纽黑文的“门当户对”

［4］Intellectual capital drives the knowledge economy, so those who have lots of it get a fat slice of the pie. And it is increasingly heritable. Far more than in previous generations, clever, successful men marry clever, successful women. Such "assortative mating" increases inequality by 25%, by one estimate, since two-degree households typically enjoy two large incomes. Power couples conceive bright children and bring them up in stable homes --- only 9% of college-educated mothers who give birth each year are unmarried, compared with 61% of high-school dropouts. They stimulate them relentlessly: children of professionals hear 32m more words by the age of four than those parents on welfare. They move to pricey neighbourhoods with good schools, spend a packet on flute lessons and pull strings to get junior into a top-notch college.

a slice of the pie：分一杯羹，前面常加get、grab。

Far more than：许多，多得多的；何止

assortative mating：门当户对；同型交配

conceive：怀孕，构想

dropout：辍学者，退学者

relentlessly：不断地，无情地，不懈地

She always questioned me relentlessly.

她总是没完没了地问我问题。

pricey：（非正式）价格昂贵

flute：长笛，长笛吹奏者

pull strings：在幕后牵线，暗中操纵，从事幕后活动

top-notch：notch是档次位阶的意思，top-notch是非正式说法，表示一流的，顶尖的。

知识资本驱使知识经济，因此那些掌握越多知识的人分得的饼也就越丰厚，其继承性越高。与上几代人相比，更多聪明成功的男人娶了聪明成功的女人。据估计，这种“门当户对”造成的不平等性提高了25%，因为夫妻俩都拥有学位的家庭一般会享受到双份高收入。有能力的夫妻能够在稳定的家庭中养育他们聪明的孩子——每年大学学历的母亲中只有9%是单身，而高中辍学生中是61%。有能力的父母会不懈地激励他们的孩子：同样4岁的孩子，富裕家庭的孩子比靠救济生活家庭的孩子多听到了三千二百万个单词。有能力的家庭会搬到有好学校的高档小区，花大把钱送孩子上长笛课，走后门托关系送孩子上顶级大学。

［5］The universities that mould the American elite seek out talented recruits from all backgrounds, and clever poor children who make it to the Ivy League may have their fees waived entirely. But middle-class students have to rack up huge debts to attend college, especially if they want a post-graduate degree, which many desirable jobs now require. The link between parental income and a child's academic success has grown stronger, as clever people become richer and splash out on their daughter's Mandarin tutor, and education matters more than it used to, because the demand for brainpower has soared. A young college graduate earns 63% more than a high-school graduate if both work full-time --- and the high-school graduate is much less likely to work at all. For those at the top of the pile, moving straight from the best universities into the best jobs, the potential rewards are greater than they have ever been.

mould：塑造；模具，（独特）个性、风格

recruit：新兵，新学员；招募

League：等级，级别；联赛

waive：宣布放弃，搁置，推迟，放弃

Mandarin tutor：普通话教师，家庭教师

对美国精英有着巨大影响的大学招收人才不分背景，考取常春滕大学的贫困生还可能获得免除学费的待遇。但即使来自中产家庭的学生还是不得不为学业举债，尤其是如果他们想取得研究生学历的话。而现在研究生学历是许多好工作的必要条件。父母收入与孩子学业成就的联系越来越紧密，高智商人群越来越富有并花大把银子给他们的女儿请中文家教。因为对脑力的要求大幅提高，教育比以前更重要。如果都能找到全职的工作的话，大学毕业生比高中毕业生的工资高63%，而实际上高中毕业生很难找到工作。对于那些从最好的大学毕业直接找到最好的工作的顶尖人才来说，获得的回报也是前所未有的。

［6］None of this is peculiar to America, but the trend is most visible there. This is partly because the gap between rich and poor is bigger than anywhere else in the rich world --- a problem Barack Obama alluded to repeatedly in his state-of-the-union address on January 20th. It is also because its education system favours the well-off more than anywhere else in the rich world. Thanks to hyperlocal funding, America is one of only three advanced countries where the government spends more on schools in rich areas than in poor ones. Its university fees have risen 17 times as fast as median incomes since 1980s, partly to pay for pointless bureaucracy and flashy buildings. And many universities offer "legacy" preferences, favoring the children of alumni in admissions.

peculiar：奇怪的，古怪的，特有的

the gap between rich and poor：贫富差距

well-off：富裕的，家境好的

pointless：无意义的，乌木镖的

bureaucracy： 官僚主义，官僚机构

flashy：浮华的，俗丽的

alumni：校友

这些现象并非美国独有，但在美国这一趋势绝对是最显著的。一方面因为美国的贫富差距为发达国家之首，这一点巴拉克•奥巴马在1月20号发表的国情咨文中曾反复提及。另一方面也是因为美国教育系统是发达国家中给予富人最多特权的一个。因为教育资金绝大多数来自地方性融资，美国政府在富人区学校的教育投入远远超过在贫困地区的学校的投入，全世界发达国家中仅有三个国家出现如此做法。20世纪80年代以来美国大学学费的增长速度是中等家庭收入增长速度的17倍。这些学费的一部分却花在了毫无意义的官僚机构和花哨的楼宇建设上面。许多学校还存在“赠与”优先权，也就是曾向学校捐赠的校友的子女有优先录取的特权。

Nurseries, not tumbrels

托儿所，而不是囚车

［7］The solution is not to discourage rich people from investing in their children, but to do a lot more to help clever kids who failed to pick posh parents. The moment to start is in early childhood, when the brain is most malleable and the right kind of stimulation has the largest effect. There is no substitute for parents who talk and read to their babies, but good nurseries can help, especially for the most struggling families; and America scores poorly by international standards. Improving early child care in the poorest American neighbourhoods yields returns of ten to one or more; few other government investments pay off so handsomely.

Nurseries：托儿所，幼儿园

tumbrels：囚车，粪车

discourage sb from doing sth：阻止某人做某事

posh：（人）上流社会的；豪华的

malleable：可塑的

handsomely：（金额）相当大，相当可观的；英俊的；（获胜）比分悬殊的；（建筑）雄伟的

解决方法当然不是阻止富人为子女教育投资，而是应该更多帮助那些没赶上有钱爸妈的聪明孩子。从幼教开始，这个时期大脑的可塑性最强，正向刺激的作用力也是最大的。能够跟孩子说话，给孩子读书的父母当然是无可取代的，但良好的幼教机构是有所帮助的，尤其是对于那些为了家庭疲于奔命的夫妻来说，而美国在这方面的表现远远低于国际标准。改善最贫穷区域的早期教育现状的回报值可达到10倍甚至更多；其他政府投资的回报率很少如此之高。

［8］Many schools are in the grip of one of the most anti-meritocratic forces in America: the teachers' unions, which resist any hint that good teaching should be rewarded or bad teachers fired. To fix this, and the scandal of inequitable funding, the system should become both more and less local. Per-pupil funding should be set at the state level and tilted to favor the poor. Dollars should follow pupils, through a big expansion of voucher schemes or charter schools. In this way, good schools that attract more pupils will grow; bad ones will close or be taken over. Unions and their Democratic Party allies will howl, but experiments in cities such as battered New Orleans have shown that school choice works.

anti-meritocratic：反精英管理的

hint：暗示，征兆

I'd dropped a hint about having an exhibition of his work up here.

我已经暗示要在这里举办一次他的作品展。

inequitable：不公平的，不公正的

voucher：凭证，代金券

howl：哀号，吼叫，咆哮

battered：破旧的，破损的

在美国，许多学校由最反精英的力量之一——教师工会——掌控。这一组织反对任何优秀教师获得奖励或是差劲的教师被解雇。如果想修正这一缺点，并消除资助不平等的丑闻，教育系统应该既强调地方化同时去地方化。针对每个学生的专项资金应由州一级政府管理，并且政策应向贫困家庭倾斜。通过学券制和特许学校的推广，资金应该发放到每一个学生手中。通过这一方式，吸引更多学生的声誉好的学校将进一步发展，差学校则面临倒闭或被接收。这一定会激怒工会和他们的民主党同盟，但落破的新奥尔良等试点城市的成功证明择校是可行的。

［9］Finally, America's universities need an injection of meritocracy. Only a handful, such as Caltech, admits applicants solely on academic merit. All should. And colleges should make more effort to offer value for money. With cheaper online courses gaining momentum, traditional institutions must cut costs or perish. The state can help by demanding more transparency from universities about the return that graduates earn on their degrees.

meritocracy： 精英管理（制度）；贤能统治（社会）

solely：仅仅;纯粹;唯一地;独一无二地

merit：价值，优点；功德

momentum：势头，动力；要素，契机

perish：毁灭;死亡，丧生;腐烂，枯萎，老化

美国高校最终还是需要引入精英教育制度。现在只有少数学校，如加洲理工学院，只根据学业成绩招收求学者。所有大学都应该这样做。而且大学教育应更物有所值。现在低廉的在线课程势头正劲，传统教育机构势必削减成本否则无法生存。政府应提供适当援助，但要求学校在各学历程度毕业生的薪资回报率方面更高的透明度。

［10］Loosening the link between birth and success would make America richer --- far too much talent is currently wasted. It might also make the nation more cohesive. If Americans suspect that the game is rigged, they may be tempted to vote for demagogues of the right or left --- especially if the grown-up alternative is another Clinton or yet another Bush.

Loosening：放松，松弛，解开（loosen的现在分词）

cohesive：有黏着力的;紧密结合的

demagogue：煽动者，蛊惑民心的政客

不问出身的成功会使美国更富裕更有凝聚力，现在太多的人才被浪费了。如果美国人怀疑这是一场受到操纵的游戏的话，他们很可能把票投给或左或右的煽动者，尤其是当备选项是另一位克林顿或另一位布什。

在所有的资源中，人才的浪费无疑是最让人心痛的。因为教育制度的不合理，而使得广大寒门学子无从获得知识进而改变出身带来的贫困，对国家无疑也是巨大的损失。我国也应该重视这个问题，虽然已经有贫困家庭补助，但像是留守儿童的权益、教育资源不均衡等现象，仍然在加剧着贫富差距，阻碍着孩子们的求学之路。

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英文原文：

http://www.economist.com

讲解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel

编排 / 校对：Angel

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