Why
Decry the Wealth Gap?

 
Americans may have been distracted by two reports reminding them of a
widening gap between the rich and poor.

The
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute,
two liberal research groups, put out a state-by-state breakdown of Census
Bureau data, which found nine states (led by New York) in which the
richest 20 percent of households now earn at least 11 times the income of
the poorest 20 percent. This indicated a much sharper disparity between
the top and bottom than existed two decades ago.

 贫富差距，为什么要谴责它?

美国民众可能已被有关贫富差距正在加大的两个报告转移了注意力。

  
两个自由派研究团体--预算与政策优先抉择中心以及经济政策研究所，发布了其对人口统计局数据的各州细目分类分析报告，指出有9个州(以纽约为首)最富有的20％家庭目前的收入至少是最贫穷的20％的11倍。这表明社会上层与底层之间的差距比20年前更为显著。

 Then
the Federal Reserve Bank released its latest survey of consumer finances.
It showed that the average net worth of families earning less than $
10,000 a year had fallen by ＄ 6,600 over the past three years, while
households earning more than $100,000 a year had seen their wealth jump by
more than $300,000.

Our
response is: So what?

  
然后，联邦储备银行也公布了最新的消费者资金调查报告，指出家庭收入少于每年1万美元的，在过去3年里其平均净资产减少了6600美元，而那些家庭收入超过每年10万美元的却增长了30多万。

 对此我们的反映是：那又怎么样呢? 

 Few
of us should be surprised -- or threatened -- by statistics on inequality.
Some Americans believe the more equality the better, but the fact is that
the distribution of income and wealth isn't arbitrary. It emerges from
broad trends in the economy and is a byproduct of a decade that created 17
million jobs and added 20 percent to median household net worth.

 The
unstated implication of the state-by-state report was that the states
where income disparities are lower are somehow " fairer" than
the states with high disparities. But the truth is that among communities,
states and regions, income and wealth will vary for many reasons, several
of them unavoidable and laudable.

   
我们大多数人都不应该为这些统计数字所体现出的不平等而吃惊或恐慌。有些美国民众认为社会越平等越好，但实际情况却是收入与财富的分配并不是随心所欲的。它随经济宏观发展趋势而出现，同时它也是这10年发展的副产品，这期间经济的发展创造了1700万个就业机会并使中等收入的家庭财产增加了20％。

上述的各州分类分析报告没有明示但暗含的意思是那些收入差异小的州要比差异大的州更公平些。但事实却是在各社区、各州与各地区，收入与财富的获得是随很多因素变化的，其中有些因素还是不可避免并值得赞许的。

Consider,
for example, that income varies with education. According to census data,
high school dropouts in the work force earn an average of ＄ 26,207,
while workers with a professional degree average ＄ 127,499. Census
figures show that many of the states with the widest income gaps have
greater diversity in education levels than states with smaller income
gaps. Twenty-six percent of those over the age of 24 in New York--the
state with the greatest income disparity -- have at least a bachelor's
degree, whereas in Indiana, which was among the seven states with the
lowest income disparity, only 16 percent do. Should we be lamenting that
so many New Yorkers went to college?

Another
non-nefarious cause of increasing income disparity may be our ever-higher
immigration rates. Immigrants tend to cluster in low-and high-income
groups. Thus it is no surprise that in the seven most unequal states --
New York, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, California, Rhode Island and
Texas -- about 13 percent of the population is foreign-born(in California,
it's 25 percent). Among the seven states with the smallest income
disparities, the immigrant population is only 3.8 percent.

The
shift away from manufacturing is also a factor. Service workers span the
gamut from hotel maids to brain surgeons, while the pay range is generally
narrower in the manufacturing sector. States that are industrial tend to
have more equal distributions of income. Data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics show that about 10 percent of workers in Arizona, Louisiana and
New York have manufacturing jobs, whereas in more equal states like
Indiana and Wisconsin the figure is 23 percent.

   
造成收入差距加大的另一个不可指责的原因或许是攀升的移民率。移民们趋于集中在低收入和高收入的两个群体中。因此，人们对下面这种情况就不会感到奇怪了。在收入最不平均的7个州--纽约、亚利桑那、新墨西哥、路易斯安那、加利福尼亚、罗德岛和得克萨斯--移民约占总人口的13％(在加利福尼亚占25％)。而在收入差距最小的7个州，移民只占3.8％。

  
劳动力从制造领域的转出也是原因之一。服务领域的工作者可既包括酒店服务生又包括脑科手术医生。而制造业中的工资差别可就小得多了，因而工业州的收入分配更趋于平均化。劳动统计局的数据表明，在亚利桑那州、路易斯安那州和纽约州10％的劳动者从事制造业工作，而在收入较平均的州，如印地安那州和威斯康星州，这个数字是23％。

Also,
in the seven states with the greatest income inequality, more than 80
percent of the population lives in or near metropolitan areas. In states
with the most equality, only about half does. If we were to turn back the
clock 100 years and again become a largely rural nation, we might not see
such large income disparities, but that's because America's cities are our
engines of wealth and offer greater prospects for those who succeed.

  
另外，在收入差距大的7个州80％的人口居住在大城市里或附近。而在收入最平均的州，居住在城里的居民只占约一半。如果时光倒流100年，我们还是一个广大的农业国时，我们可能看不到这巨大的贫富差距。但正是美国的这些城市才造就了财富，才为成功者提供了更美好的前程。

Inequality
is not inequity. Artificial efforts to try to curb wealth gaps invariably
do more harm than good. Heavier taxation might narrow the division between
rich and poor, but it would be a hollow triumph if it stifled the economy.
What Americans ought to care most about is maintaining our growth, not the
red herring of gaps in income and wealth.

  
收入的不平均并不代表不平等。人为地控制贫富差距只会有害无益。加大税收力度也许会缩小贫富间的差距，但如果它抑制了经济的发展，那也只是毫无意义的成就。美国民众最该关心的应是保持经济的增长，而不是将注意力转移到收入与财富的差距上。By
W.Michael Cox and Richard Alm (高英 摘译 Dallas)