外刊精读：我们的安全网

OUR FAILED SAFETY NETS

我们的安全网

By Zachary Karabell

An additional 2.98 million people led for unemployment in the beginning of May, bringing the total lost jobs to at least 36 million by official tallies, and likely significantly more once discouraged and gig workers are factored in. Until this March, the most unemployment claims ever led in one week was fewer than 700,000.

在5月初，又有298万人失业。根据官方统计，失业总人数达到了至少3600万人，而如果将工作不景气的临时工也考虑在内的话，失业人数可能会更多。截止到今年3月，失业率最高的一个星期，有将近70万人失去了工作。

Gig：现场演出；临时工作。

例句：I met him at a Simple Minds gig at St Andrews University in 1978.

Be factored in：把……作为因素计入。

Factor：n. 因素；要素；[物] 因数；代理人。

       vi. 做代理商。

       vt. 把…作为因素计入；代理经营；把…分解成。

例句：We have to factor that into the calculus（微积分）.

The primary reason for this massive surge in unemployment is of course the pandemic and the economic shutdowns to contain it. But government policy is also to blame.

毫无疑问，失业人数激增的主要原因是新冠肺炎疫情和为了防治疫情导致的经济停滞。但是政府的政策也并不是无可指摘的。

Surge：n. 汹涌；大浪，波涛；汹涌澎湃；v. 汹涌；起大浪，蜂拥而来。常用为引申义表“激增”。

例句：One way is for a further surge in investment.

The virus has exposed the shambles of how the U.S. has structured its safety nets since the Great Depression. It is a system that barely works in stable times but which in a crisis creates incentives for companies to re people even if they intend to rehire them several months later. We have managed, in a few short weeks, to design the worst of all possible worlds: a massive aid package (the $2 trillion CARES Act) that incentivizes unemployment (despite the loans that came too late to keep some workers on payroll), pays people more than they would if they stayed employed (thanks to extra money for unemployment benefits) and makes everyone from large companies to gig workers more insecure about the future. The goal of a safety net is to help people feel . . . safe. Ours doesn’t.

该病毒暴露了美国自经济大萧条以来建立的安全网是多么的不堪一击。这是一个在稳定时期几乎无法运作，但在危机中诱使公司裁员的系统——即使在几个月后公司又重新雇佣员工。在短短几周内，我们呈现了所有可能的世界中最糟糕的情况：一个庞大的援助计划（2万亿美元的CARES法案）刺激了失业（贷款来得太晚，来不及支付一些工人工资），给人们的钱比他们工作时的工资还要高（这要归功于额外的失业救济金），并使从大企业到零工，每个人对未来都更加缺乏安全感。安全网的目的是帮助人们感觉......安全。但我们并没有感觉到。

Shamble：vi. 蹒跚地走；摇晃不稳；n. 蹒跚；摇晃的脚步。此处引申译为“不堪一击”。

例句：Once again, as when we were small, we believe that magic can happen, that we can be different, that life is not just a predictable and frequently humiliating shamble towards the grave.

The Great Depression：资本主义经济史上最持久、最深刻、最严重的周期性世界经济危机。首先爆发于美国，1929年10月24日纽约股票市场价格在一天之内下跌12.8%，大危机由此开始。紧接着就是银行倒闭、生产下降、工厂破产、工人失业。大危机从美国迅速蔓延到整个欧洲和除苏联以外的全世界，是迄今为止人类社会遭遇的规模最大、历时最长、影响最深刻的经济危机。

CARES Act：《冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全法案》（Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act）的简称，为了帮助美国个人或者企业应对疫情带来的经济影响，美国联邦政府近期通过了该法案。此法案为美国企业提供了贷款和其他福利，扩大了失业保险，还直接向中等及低收入人群支付现金补助，并为医疗保健和其他优先事项提供了新的拨款。其中，该法案涵盖了4个主要的贷款计划。

People are deeply apprehensive. Part of that is unequivocal fear of the virus. No amount of government spending could alleviate that quickly. Economic anxiety is another matter. The contrast with the E.U. and Asia is striking. In many of those nations, governments have guaranteed the majority of worker payrolls and salaries. As a result, most companies have had no need or incentive to re workers en masse, at least not immediately, and they’ll be able to restart operations faster.

人们深感忧虑。部分人是对病毒的明确恐惧。任何财政救济都无法迅速缓解这种情况。而经济焦虑是另一回事。与欧盟和亚洲的对比令人震惊。在许多欧洲和亚洲国家，政府已经保障了大多数工人的工资和薪水。因此，大多数公司都不需要，或至少不立即裁员，因此他们得以更快的复苏。

Apprehensive：adj.忧虑的；不安的；敏悟的；知晓的。

例句：If you already have planned running routes, you won't feel as apprehensive about running at your destination once you arrive.

Unequivocal：adj.明确的；不含糊的。

例句：In my opinion the answer is an unequivocal "yes".

Alleviate：vt.减轻，缓和。

例句：I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannnot, and I too suffer.

Compare the situation in the U.S. Say you had a restaurant business with several outlets and a hundred employees in March that was modestly pro table prepandemic. Faced with months of no revenue, you could pay your workers and rent perhaps for a month before cash ran out. The CARES Act wasn’t passed until the end of March, about a week after the start of the shutdowns, but those funds didn’t start owing till a few weeks later. But you knew that regular unemployment benefits would come quickly and would at least provide your workers with basic income. So you furlough them, allowing them to maintain health insurance, or you re them outright. And then, when that extra $600 kicks in, and you know those payments will last until at least the end of July, it makes no sense to rehire them right now.

对比美国的情况，比如说你在三月份开了一家餐厅，有好几家分店和100名员工，这家餐厅的经营都比较专业。面对数月无收入的情况，你也许还可以在资金耗尽前支付工人工资和房屋租金。《救助法案》直到3月底——大约在餐厅关门一周后才会通过，而企业救济资金要在几周后才开始到位。但定期的失业救济很快就会到来，至少会为你的工人提供基本收入。所以你给他们休假，让他们维持健康保险。或者你直接代表他们。当救助资金600美元到位后，你知道救济将至少持续到7月底，现在重新雇佣他们是没有意义的。

Modestly：adv.谨慎地;谦虚地;适度地;审慎地。

例句：He modestly omits to mention that he was British pole-vault champion.

Unemployment benefits：n.失业福利;失业津贴;失业补助。

例句：It is disgraceful that they should be denied unemployment benefits.

Furlough：n.休假  v.准…休假。

例句：He sustained the role of Creon with burly resilience.

Health insurance：n.医疗保险;健康保险;健康险。

Outright：adv.全部地;彻底地;立即;当场;毫无保留地;公开地;不分批地;当场银货两讫地；

adj.公开的;直接的;彻底的;毋庸置疑的;全部的;显而易见的。

例句：They were sagacious enough to avoid any outright confrontation.

Then take a megacompany like Disney, which furloughed tens of thousands of employees. The Federal Reserve lending program for companies doesn’t help you because you are too big, and you’ve closed theme parks with no reopening date. So you do the same as that small business. And for medium-size companies, the Fed’s lending program doesn’t have a launch date yet, so given the urgent need to conserve cash, you too furlough or fire. And that’s in large part why we have 36 million ling for unemployment.

以迪士尼这样的大公司为例，它让数万名员工被迫休假。美联储的公司贷款计划对迪士尼没有帮助，因为迪士尼太大了。迪士尼已经关闭了主题公园，也确定没有重新开放的日期。所以迪士尼和那些小企业一样。而对于中型企业来说，美联储的贷款计划还没有启动的日期，因此考虑到急需保存现金，中型企业要么休假要么解雇。这在为什么我们有3600万失业人口的主要原因。

The Federal Reserve：  n.美联储

Reopening：adj.重新开的   v.再开;(reopen的现在分词)

例句：And in 30 days we hold a grand reopening of the island.

Small business   n.小企业;小型企业;小生意

例句：Ours is a small business, and we never expect to make a fortune out of it.

Ling：n.鳕;欧石南。

While some of the unemployed will do as well with the government benefits as they would have with a job, we know that getting red can be traumatic and being unemployed is a recipe for insecurity and caution. Added to that is the uncertainty about costs of health care. The instinct is to save and conserve and cut back to essentials, which is individually rational but collectively disastrous for the economy.

虽然一些失业者会享受与他们在工作时一样好的政府福利，但我们知道，失业令人痛苦，失业是一种不安全和谨慎。此外，保健费用的不确定性也在增加。人们的本能反应是储蓄、节约，削减必要开支，这对经济来说是理性的，但总体而言是灾难性的。

Traumatic：adj.令人痛苦的;令人不快的;损伤的;与心理创伤有关的;造成心理创伤的;

例句：The mind can bury all memory of traumatic abuse.

Insecurity：n.不安全;局促不安;无把握;不牢靠。

We can’t undo what’s been done. But we can improve in the future. With warnings of a second wave in the fall, planning for a next round of shutdowns is essential, as is restructuring government aid programs going for- ward. Some hiring will return in the coming months, and to ensure that those jobs don’t once again get eliminated precipitously, government at both the federal and state levels needs to be ready to open the spigot quickly and directly so that companies have neither the incentive nor the need to re employees. Having a streamlined process of turning on emergency relief the moment it is needed, with clear and simple rules that all businesses and workers understand in advance, is essential—and possible if there is the political will to do things differently.

我们无法撤销已经做过的事情。但我们可以在未来改进。鉴于今年秋季可能出现第二波警告，为下一轮关停做好计划至关重要，重组政府援助计划也是如此。一些就业岗位将在未来几个月恢复，为了确保这些岗位不会再次突然消失，联邦和州政府都需要做好准备。这样公司既不需要激励，也没有必要重新雇用员工。有一个精简的流程，在紧急救援时启动，有清晰简单的规则，对所有的企业和工人都进行事先了解，这是至关重要的——如果有政治意愿去做不同的事情，这是可能的。

Undo：  v.解开;打开;松开;消除…影响或结果;使恢复原状;使垮台;毁灭;恢复;取消

n.撤消还原

例句：There wasn't any way Evelyn could undo the damage. 伊芙琳根本无法消除那损害所造成的影响。

Restructuring：n.改革;重组;改组  v.重建;重组;调整;(restructure的现在分词)

例句：Restructuring and the resultant cost savings. 改组及因此产生的成本节省。

Government aid：   n.国家援助

Precipitously：adv.陡峭地;陡然地;出乎意料地

Streamlined：vt.精简;使效率更高;使合理化;把…做成流线型;组织使成流型;(streamline的过去式和过去分词)

adj.流线型的;改进的;最新型的

例句：The company streamlined its operations by removing whole layers of management.

Emergency relief   n.紧急救助; 紧急救济服务。

还有其他报道从三位女性的具体生活窘境看美国安全网的漏洞，可扫码阅读：

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本文责编 ✎ 金钟罩

本期编辑 ✎ Ben