你以为好好工作就够了？
在我们这个国家(美国，美国，美国)，上班其实是一场大家心照不宣的交易。你在一家公司上班，每周工作40个小时以上，公司赚钱了，作为回报，你能拿到一笔报酬，这笔钱能换来一处遮风挡雨的屋檐，能让你看病，能给你的孩子营造良好的生活，并且，能让你在为工作奉献完青春后，晚年生活有足够的经济条件过得舒适一点。
After World War II, it’s this idea that helped undergird the post-war economic boom, and created our modern idea of what the American Dream really is: Put in your time for a company, and the company gives you the foundation to build a comfortable life. Today, the economy is–by most simple statistical measures–booming. The stock market is soaring. Unemployment is incredibly low. So why does it seem like everyone is having a hard time getting by?
二战后，正是这样的思想帮助战后经济快速恢复，同样也是这样的思想，塑造了我们的美国梦：为一家公司奉献青春，而公司则能为你的舒适生活提供保障。如今，我们的经济在腾飞，股市一片红，失业率低到说出去都没人信。但为什么每个人都看起来过得紧巴巴的?
A recent survey found that nearly half of Americans couldn’t come up with $400 for an emergency. Housing costs in many cities have soared out of reach of all but the extremely wealthy. Childcare has become so expensive that women are choosing to delay or entirely forgo having families, because they simply can’t afford it. People are forced to take to crowdfunding sites, hat in hand, to beg for enough money to pay for their insulin–and die when they don’t win a life-or-death contest of internet virality. The economic boom, it seems, isn’t being shared.
最近一则调查显示，有将近一半的美国人都没法拿出400美金应急。许多城市的房价已经涨到普通家庭根本买不起的程度。养育子女的费用同样很高，许多女性都选择延迟结婚，或者干脆不成家，因为根本负担不起。有的人为了胰岛素的药费，被迫在众筹网站毕恭毕敬地乞求施舍，如果他们没有办法获得足够的传播量，等待他们的只有死亡。经济在发展，但发展的红利似乎并没有被分享。
There is a simple explanation: As company profits have soared, salaries have remained stagnant. Since the end of the last recession, corporate profits as a share of national income have hit their highest points in the last half-century; employee pay as a share of national income has been at its lowest ebb. CEO pay is rising, stockholders (the richest 10% of Americans own 84% of the stock) are seeing billions in returns in the form of stock buybacks, but the average worker is reaping very little of the reward. Technology has made each worker vastly more productive, but the wealth that extra productivity creates isn’t being shared in the form of increased wages or less time at work.
原因很简单：公司利润在上涨，但薪水还在原地踏步。从上一次经济危机到现在，企业利润在国民收入中的占比达到了半世纪以来的最高点;而员工工资在国民收入中的占比降到了最低点。CEO的工资在涨，公司股东(美国最富有的前10%，拥有市场上84%的股票)通过股份回购的方式可以获得数十亿资产，但普通员工的回报少得可怜。科技的发展使工人的生产力得到了极大提高，但富余生产力创造的财富(剩余价值?)并没有通过更多的工资或更少的工作时间得到分享。
If you’re working hard every day, but feel like you’re treading water financially, you’re not alone. It’s almost certainly not your fault–and there are ways we can fix it.
如果你每天工作都很努力，但还是得节衣缩食地过日子，你不是一个人。这也不是你的错——我们会有办法解决这些问题的。
