美國保守派頻頻指責窮人！彭博社撰文駁斥：日本的做法值得學習

Stop Blaming America』s Poor for Their Poverty

別再因為貧窮而指責美國的窮人

來源：彭博社 翻譯：世界播

Many conservatives in the U.S. believe that poverty is mainly a result of bad personal decisions. African-Americans are especially likely to be blamed for their own poverty -- an attitude that some political scientists call racial resentment. But conservatives also attribute similar failings to poor white people. In a memorable 2016 article, National Review writer Kevin Williamson blamed divorce and substance abuse for the despair of the white working class.

美國許多保守派人士認為，貧困主要是個人錯誤決定的結果。非洲裔美國人尤其可能因自己的貧困而受到指責，一些政治學家將這種態度稱為種族仇恨。但保守派也將類似的失敗歸咎於貧窮的白人。在2016年一篇令人難忘的文章中，《國家評論》撰稿人凱文?威廉姆森將白人工人階級的絕望歸咎於離婚和濫用藥物。

According to this perspective, if people were just to work hard, avoid drugs, alcohol and violence, and stop having children out of wedlock, poverty would be rare.

根據這一觀點，如果人們只是努力工作，避免吸毒、酗酒和暴力，停止非婚生子女，貧困將是罕見的。

But there is at least one rich country where people follow all of these prescriptions -- where they work hard, avoid risky, self-destructive behavior and make wise life choices. That country is Japan. And it still has plenty of poverty.

但至少在一個富裕國家，人們遵循所有這些規矩——努力工作，避免危險的、自我毀滅的行為，做出明智的生活選擇。那個國家就是日本。而且該國仍然有大量的貧困人口。

Violence is exceedingly rare in Japan. The murder rate is so small:

暴力在日本極其罕見。謀殺率相當地低：

Japan"s crime rate was always low, but it has fallen even further in recent years, leaving some police departments with little to do.

日本的犯罪率一直很低，但近年來下降得更厲害，這使得一些警察部門幾乎無所事事。

Japan also has very little illegal drug use. After World War II there was a problem with methamphetamine addiction (which did lead to some violent crime), but this has largely disappeared. Despite the country』s draconian drug laws, narcotics prosecutions are only about 13,000 a year, with about 3,000 being for marijuana. Very small percentages of Japanese people ever having used drugs.

日本的非法藥物使用也很少。第二次世界大戰後，甲基苯丙胺（即冰毒）成癮(這確實引發了一些暴力犯罪)的問題出現了，但這種情況已基本消失。儘管該國有嚴厲的禁毒法律，但每年對毒品的起訴只有1.3萬起左右，其中約3000起與大麻有關。只有很小比例的日本人曾經使用過毒品。

And the country has very little single parenthood. Although the rate has risen by about 50% since the country』s economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, there are still only about 712,000 single mothers, or less than 2% of all households. This is compares to roughly 8.5 million in the U.S., which has about 2.7 times Japan』s population.

而且這個國家很少有單親家庭。儘管自上世紀90年代初日本經濟泡沫破裂以來，單親家庭的比例已經上升了約50%，但目前單身母親的數量僅為71.2萬人，不到所有家庭的2%。相比之下，美國的這一數字約為850萬，而美國的人口約為日本的2.7倍。

Finally, Japanese people almost all work. The working-age employment rate, at more than 77%, is higher than the 71% rate in the U.S.

最後要說的是，絕大多數日本人都在工作。該國勞動年齡就業率超過77%，高於美國71%的水平。

Given all of this good behavior, conservatives might expect that Japan』s poverty rate would be very low. But the opposite is true; Japan has a relatively high number of poor people for an advanced country. Defined by the percentage of the population earning less than half of the median national income, Japan』s poverty rate is more than 15% -- a little lower than the U.S., but considerably higher than countries such as Germany, Canada or Australia:

考慮到所有這些良好的行為，保守主義者可能認為日本的貧困率會非常低。但事實恰恰相反；作為一個發達國家，日本的貧困人口相對較多。按收入不足國民可支配收入中值一半的人口所佔比例計算，日本的貧困率超過15%，略低於美國，但遠高於德國、加拿大或澳大利亞等國：

Japanese poverty is a quiet affair. There are almost no slums or shantytowns. The streets are generally clean and well-kept. Homeless people sleep out of sight. Single people live in tiny bare apartments little larger than a closet. Elderly people who never recovered from the economic bust of the 1990s suffer in the shadows. Many shop at 100-yen stores just to survive.

日本的貧窮是一件非常隱秘的事。這個國家幾乎沒有貧民窟或棚戶區。街道一般都很乾凈，並維護得很好。無家可歸的人睡在看不見的地方。單身人士們住在比壁櫥大不了多少的空蕩蕩的小公寓里。而那些從未從上世紀90年代的經濟蕭條中恢復過來的老年人們仍在苦苦掙扎，艱難度日。許多人在100日元的商店購物只是為了生存。

Children are going hungry too. Almost 14% of kids, or some 3.5 million in all, are estimated to live in poverty -- and that』s already down from a peak of more than 16% in 2012. To combat the problem, local governments around the country are opening thousands of cafeterias where children can eat for free.

孩子們也在挨餓。據估計，約有14%的兒童，也就是350萬左右的兒童生活在貧困之中，這一比例已經低於2012年逾16%的峰值水平。為了解決這一問題，日本各地政府開設了數千家自助餐廳，孩子們可以在那裡免費用餐。

In terms of overall social spending to support the poor, however, Japan falls near the middle of the pack:

然而，在用於救助窮人的總體社會支出方面，日本幾乎處於中等水平：

And much of this is due to its national health-insurance system; in terms of the welfare state, Japan lags well behind Europe.

這在很大程度上要歸功於它的國民健康保險體系；不過在福利國家方面，日本遠遠落後於歐洲。

So Japanese people are doing everything right -- eschewing violence, avoiding drugs, working hard and not having kids out of wedlock. They are following the conservative prescription. And yet still, many of them are poor. This suggests that there is something very wrong with the conservative theory of poverty.

所以日本人做的每一件事都是對的，避免暴力，避免毒品，努力工作，不在未結婚的情況下生育子女。他們正在遵循保守的規則。然而，他們中的許多人仍然很窮。這表明，保守的貧困理論有一些非常錯誤的地方。

Although some individuals suffer economic hardship due to their own poor choices -- and violence, drugs and family breakdown undoubtedly make life worse for poor people in any country -- the main causes of poverty are more related to the economy』s structure. Too many people fall through the cracks in the capitalist system because of unemployment, sickness, injury or other forms of bad luck. And the market, on its own, simply doesn』t create enough well-paying jobs for everyone to be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle.

儘管一些人因為自己的選擇不當而遭受經濟困難——暴力、毒品和家庭破裂無疑會讓任何國家的窮人生活更糟——但貧困的主要原因更多地與經濟結構有關。太多的人因為失業、疾病、受傷或其他形式的厄運而掉進資本主義制度的裂縫之中。而且，市場本身並不能創造足夠多的高薪工作，讓每個人都能負擔得起舒適的生活方式。

So the solution for the U.S.』s relatively high poverty rate will probably rely little on personal responsibility and moral rectitude. Instead, the U.S. should look to European countries, or to Australia and Canada, for ideas on how to reduce poverty. There』s just no substitute for a strong social safety net.

因此，美國相對較高的貧困率的解決方案，可能不太依賴個人責任和道德操守。相反，美國應該向歐洲國家或澳大利亞和加拿大尋求減少貧困的辦法。而沒有什麼可以替代強大的社會保障網路。

世界播

雙語資訊，讀懂世界

長按識別左邊二維碼

加入世界播用戶交流群

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！