DAY 92 Why the pandemic could eventually lower inequality
inequality??/??n??kw?l?ti/
?the unfair difference between groups of people in society, when some have more wealth, status or opportunities than othersequality /i?kw?l?ti/??
the fact of being equal in rights, status, advantages, etc.
History suggests it could precipitate shifts towards a more equal income distribution
precipitate?/pr??s?p?te?t/?
1> to make something, especially something bad, happen suddenly or sooner than it should
2>??to suddenly force somebody/something into a particular state or condition
v（通常指不好的事件或形勢）突然發(fā)生；加速 ;
a?（行動或決定）倉猝的稍走，貿(mào)然的袁翁，突然的shift
[c]?a change in opinion, mood, policy, etc.distribution[?d?str??bju??n]
income distribution??收入的分配
1 For America’s poor, the covid-19 pandemic has delivered a swift and brutal reversal of fortune. At the start of the year unemployment was plumbing new lows. Years of wage growth for low-income workers had healed some of the scars left by the global financial crisis. Already by 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available, the economic expansion had produced a smaller rise in American income inequality, after taxes and transfers, than any expansion since the early 1980s. Between 2016 and 2019 the weekly earnings of low- and middle-income workers grew at an annual average pace of 3.8%. Since covid-19 struck, however, a host of economic statistics—and legions of pundits—have pointed to a resurgence in inequality. Yet if history is a guide, the pandemic could eventually render the distribution of income more egalitarian.
a swift and?brutal reversal? 猛烈而慘痛的損失
deliver
?[transitive]?to give or send information or ideas to somebody?brutal /?bru?tl/? a
1>?violent and cruel
2>?direct and clear about something unpleasant; not thinking of people’s feelings
reversal/r??v??sl/? n
?a change of something so that it is the opposite of what it wasplumb?/pl?m/? v =?fathom
to try to understand or succeed in understanding something mysterious?a host of許多柴底，一大群；眾多粱胜，大量
pundit??/?p?nd?t/??行家柄驻；權(quán)威；專家
?a person who knows a lot about a particular subject and who often talks about it in public?resurgence/r??s??d??ns/? n
?the return and growth of an activity that had stopped?render?/?rend?(r)/??
1>?render somebody/something + adj. (formal) to cause somebody/something to be in a particular state or condition
2>?(formal) to give somebody something, especially in return for something or because it is expected
3> (formal) to present something, especially when it is done officially =furnish
4>?(formal) to express or perform something
致使;造成? ??給予(幫助);提供(服務(wù))? ? ?
宣布焙压，作出(判決鸿脓、決定或回應(yīng))egalitarian.??/i?ɡ?l??te?ri?n/? ?n
?a person who believes that everyone is equal and should have the same rights and opportunities
adj. 平等主義的 n. 平等主義；平等主義者轉(zhuǎn)移支付（transfer payment）是指政府或企業(yè)無償?shù)刂Ц督o個(gè)人以增加其收入和購買力的費(fèi)用涯曲。它是一種收入再分配形式野哭。轉(zhuǎn)移支付包括政府的轉(zhuǎn)移支付和企業(yè)的轉(zhuǎn)移支付。政府的轉(zhuǎn)移支付大都帶有福利支出性質(zhì)幻件，如社會保險(xiǎn)福利津貼拨黔、撫恤金、養(yǎng)老金绰沥、失業(yè)補(bǔ)助蓉驹、救濟(jì)金以及各種補(bǔ)助費(fèi)等；農(nóng)產(chǎn)品價(jià)格補(bǔ)貼也是政府的轉(zhuǎn)移支付揪利。由于政府的轉(zhuǎn)移支付等于把財(cái)政收入還給個(gè)人态兴，故有的西方經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家稱其為負(fù)稅收。
2 There are many reasons why the well-heeled might suffer less in the pandemic. Much of the plunge in asset prices that occurred in March has since been retraced. In places like New York City and Los Angeles, covid-19 seems to have hit poorer neighbourhoods harder. Low-wage earners are often less able to work from home or maintain social distancing. Interruptions to schooling widen the gaps in achievement between children from richer backgrounds and those from poorer families.
well-heeled? ?/?wel ?hi?ld/? 富人們
?having a lot of money? =?rich,?wealthyretrace??/r??tre?s/??舉（步）折回;沿（原路）返回
go back over again?
3 Meanwhile, workers on the lower rungs of the income ladder have borne the brunt of job losses. America’s unemployment rate rose by roughly ten percentage points, to 14.7%, in April—the highest since the Depression. The jobless rate for workers with a college education went up by nearly six percentage points, to 8.4%; that for workers without a high-school diploma leapt by just over 14 percentage points, to 21.2%. A new paper published by the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago reinforces the point. Between February and April, find its authors, employment among workers in the top fifth of the income distribution dropped by 9%. In the bottom fifth, by contrast, it plunged by 35%.
rung /r??/? 樓梯中間的擋板——>擋板
one of the bars that forms a step in a?ladderbear? /be?(r)/? v 承受
to be able to accept and deal with something unpleasant? = standbrunt? /br?nt/? 壓力
承受主要壓力；首當(dāng)其沖
To?bear the brunt?or?take the brunt of?something unpleasant means to suffer the main part or force of it.leap?/li?p/
leap (in something) (from…) (to…)?to increase suddenly and by a large amount? =shoot upreinforce?/?ri??n?f??s/? v
?to make a feeling, an idea, etc. stronger
4 Were the crisis of unemployment to end as swiftly as it began, the effects of these uneven job losses on inequality would be limited, and fleeting. Many jobless workers are earning more in unemployment benefits than they did on the job, thanks to a top-up of $600 per week enacted by Congress in March. Of the more than 20m Americans who were out of work in April, 78% were reported to be temporarily laid off. But the danger is that temporary job losses become permanent. The authors of the Becker Friedman paper calculate that active employment—or the number of workers counted on payrolls—declined by 14% between February and April. About 40% of that fall occurred at firms that had ceased operations, at least temporarily. Not all will reopen. A new working paper by Jose Maria Barrero of Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and Steven Davis of the University of Chicago is similarly gloomy, concluding that 42% of pandemic-related job losses will be permanent. Meanwhile, the crush of claimants has overwhelmed some state governments and slowed the flow of unemployment aid. Top-up benefits are due to expire in July, when millions will still be jobless.
?fleeting ?/?fli?t??/? 短時(shí)間存在
?lasting only a short timeunemployment benefits? ?收入津貼
top-up?/?t?p ?p/? n 充值
?a payment that you make to increase the amount of money, etc. to the level that is needed?active employment 正在工作并領(lǐng)薪水
the number of workers counted on?payrolls? ?payroll? ?/?pe?r??l/? ?工資名單
1>??a list of people employed by a company showing the amount of money to be paid to each of them
2>??[usually singular]?the total amount paid in wages by a company?gloomy/?ɡlu?mi/??depressing
nearly dark, or badly lit in a way that makes you feel sadclaimant? /?kle?m?nt/? 領(lǐng)取失業(yè)救濟(jì)金的人
a person who claims something because they believe they have a right to it
5 The most vulnerable workers are therefore likely to be squeezed hard by the recession. But if history is a guide, those at the top of the income distribution could yet face a reckoning. Disruptive global events have often precipitated shifts towards a more equal distribution of income and wealth. In his influential book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, Thomas Piketty points out that high levels of inequality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were reduced by the calamitous events of the period from 1914 to 1945. In that time the share of income earned by America’s top 1%, for instance, dropped from 19% to 14%. The combination of depression, war, inflation and taxes compressed incomes and laid waste to vast fortunes. Walter Scheidel, a historian, goes further still in his book on long-run inequality, “The Great Leveller”. Since antiquity, he argues, only four forces have ever managed to reduce inequality in a sustained way: war, revolution, state failure and pandemic. (The troubles often coincide: a pandemic contributed to the failure of the Roman empire; another coincided with the end of the first world war.)
reckoning/?rek?n??/? ?
1>?[countable, usually singular, uncountable]?a time when somebody’s actions will be judged to be right or wrong and they may be punished
2>??[uncountable, countable]?the act of calculating something, especially in a way that is not very exact
報(bào)應(yīng);清算? ??（尤指并不十分準(zhǔn)確的）預(yù)計(jì)，估計(jì)永乌，估算disruptive?/d?s?r?pt?v/??破壞性的;制造混亂的
1>?causing problems, noise, etc. so that something cannot continue normally
2>?new and original, in a way that causes major changes to how something is doneprecipitate
calamitous? /k??l?m?t?s/
?causing great damage to people’s lives, property, etc. =?disastrous
不幸的;災(zāi)難性的;嚴(yán)重的lay waste 使荒蕪
lay something waste?|?lay waste (to) something
?(formal)?to destroy a place completelyantiquity[?n?t?kw?ti]
1>?Antiquity?is the distant past, especially the time of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
古代敛腌，古時(shí)（尤指古埃及、古希臘搬男、古羅馬時(shí)期）
2>?things such as buildings, statues, or coins that were made in ancient times and have survived to the present day.?古跡;古建筑;古物
3>?The?antiquity?of something is its great age.古老；年代悠久state failure? 國家滅亡
coincide?/?k???n?sa?d/
[intransitive]?(of two or more events)?to take place at the same timecontributed to
to be one of the causes of something托馬斯·皮凱蒂（Thomas Piketty），1971年生于法國上塞納省傻铣。法國著名經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家，巴黎經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院教授祥绞，法國社會科學(xué)高等研究院研究主任非洲，主要研究財(cái)富與收入不平等。
《21世紀(jì)資本論》法國經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家蜕径、巴黎經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院教授托馬斯·皮凱蒂對過去300年來歐美國家的財(cái)富收入做了詳盡探究两踏，通過大量的歷史數(shù)據(jù)分析，旨在證明近幾十年來兜喻，不平等現(xiàn)象已經(jīng)擴(kuò)大梦染，很快會變得更加嚴(yán)重。他認(rèn)為，我們正在倒退回“承襲制資本主義”的年代帕识。在這樣的制度下泛粹，經(jīng)濟(jì)的制高點(diǎn)不僅由財(cái)富決定，還由繼承的財(cái)富決定肮疗，因而出身要比后天的努力和才能更重要晶姊。皮凱蒂指出，最富有的那批人不是因?yàn)閯趧觿?chuàng)造了財(cái)富族吻，只是因?yàn)樗麄儽緛砭透挥忻苯琛Ｒ痪湓挘喝松黄降取Ｓ捎谫Y本回報(bào)率傾向于高于經(jīng)濟(jì)增長率超歌，貧富不均是資本主義固有的東西砍艾，所以要徹底鏟除經(jīng)濟(jì)中的這種不平等現(xiàn)象，就需要在全球范圍內(nèi)對富人征收累進(jìn)稅來保護(hù)民主社會巍举。
Walter Scheidel沃爾特沙伊德爾;
6 Past crises are a far cry from today’s difficulties. The Black Death compressed income gaps by dramatically reducing the ratio of workers to arable land. Even in the worst possible case, covid-19 will kill far fewer than the 30-60% of Europeans felled by bubonic plague. Stockmarkets could plunge again, but it is very unlikely that they will match the collapse of nearly 90% that took place between 1929 and 1932. Yet some comparisons can still be made. The debts racked up by governments during this pandemic will in some cases reach heights last seen during the world wars. When governments eventually balance the books—and especially if they reduce debt burdens via taxation, financial repression or debt restructuring—the wealthy could find themselves footing the bill.
a far cry? =remote
a very different experience from something??
arable?[??r?bl]adj. 適于耕種的脆荷；可開墾的
connected with growing crops such as?wheatfelled???
fell[fel]
1>?If trees?are felled, they are cut down.
2>? If you?fell?someone, you knock them down, for example in a fight.
砍伐，砍倒(樹木)? ? ??擊倒;打倒??
bubonic plague.? ?淋巴腺鼠疫
/bju??b?n?k ?ple?ɡ/(also?the plague)
?a disease spread by?rats?that causes a high temperature,?swellings?(= areas that are larger and rounder than usual)?on the body and usually deathracked up = accummulate?
?to collect something, such as profits or losses in a business, or points in a competitionreach heights
book 賬本
financial repression? ?經(jīng)濟(jì)收縮（美聯(lián)儲的一種手段）
debt restructuring? 債務(wù)重組footing the bill.? 為賬單付錢
Time for a redeal
redeal
重新發(fā)牌——>重新洗牌
deal /di?l/??發(fā)牌
to give cards to each player in a game of cards
7 Furthermore, the crisis could have indirect effects that influence the trajectory of inequality. In a critique of Mr Piketty’s arguments published in 2017 Marshall Steinbaum, now of the University of Utah, argued that the wars and the Depression of the 20th century mainly led to greater egalitarianism by discrediting ruling elites and the regressive policies that had enabled the rises in inequality in the first place. That created space for social democracy to bloom. Inequality fell not only because of higher taxes but also because of extensions to the welfare state.
trajectory? /tr??d?ekt?ri/? ?發(fā)展軌跡
the curved path of something that has been fired, hit or thrown into the aircritique? /kr??ti?k/? 評論文章
a piece of written criticism of a set of ideas, a work of art, etc.egalitarianism? /i?ɡ?l??te?ri?n?z?m/? 平等主義
?the belief that everyone is equal and should have the same rights and opportunitiesdiscrediting
? 聲譽(yù)受損
discredit/d?s?kred?t/
to make people stop respecting somebody/something?regressive/r??ɡres?v/
1>??becoming or making something less advanced
2>??(specialist)?(of taxes)?having less effect on the rich than on the poor?regressive?policies 累退稅政策
對窮人征收更高的稅懊悯，對富人征收的稅更少蜓谋。（與累進(jìn)稅相反）in the first place
used at the end of a sentence to talk about why something was done or whether it should have been done or not
首先，從一開始;?壓根兒;?固;?當(dāng)初;extensions to the?welfare state.? ……的普及
welfare state.? 福利性國家
8 History need not repeat itself. Governments and economic systems of all kinds have struggled to manage the pandemic effectively and equitably. But it does not take much imagination to see that if politicians allow the costs of the pandemic to be borne unequally they could sow the seeds of a transformative populist backlash. They would do well to heed the lessons of the past.
equitably/?ekw?t?bli/??
?in a fair and reasonable way in which everyone is treated the samebacklash??/?b?kl??/n? 沖擊
a strong negative reaction by a large number of people, for example to something that has recently changed in society
backlash (from somebody)
backlash (against something)?transformative populist? ?變革的民粹主義者
? populist? ?/?p?pj?l?st/??
believing in or supporting?populism?(= a type of politics that claims to represent the opinions and wishes of ordinary people)transformative?
[?tr?ns'f?:m?t?v]? ?
adj.有改革能力的炭分，變化的桃焕，變形的;heed?/hi?d/? =notice
to pay careful attention to somebody’s advice or warning民粹主義（populism），又譯平民主義捧毛，是在19世紀(jì)的俄國興起的一股社會思潮观堂。民粹主義的基本理論包括：極端強(qiáng)調(diào)平民群眾的價(jià)值和理想，把平民化和大眾化作為所有政治運(yùn)動和政治制度合法性的最終來源呀忧；依靠平民大眾對社會進(jìn)行激進(jìn)改革师痕，并把普通群眾當(dāng)作政治改革的唯一決定性力量；通過強(qiáng)調(diào)諸如平民的統(tǒng)一而账、全民公決胰坟、人民的創(chuàng)制權(quán)等民粹主義價(jià)值，對平民大眾從整體上實(shí)施有效的控制和操縱泞辐。
大危機(jī)在人的一生中往往僅會遇到一次笔横，決策者缺乏經(jīng)驗(yàn)，又總是面臨民粹主義铛碑、狹隘的民族主義和經(jīng)濟(jì)問題政治化這三座大山狠裹，政治家往往被短期民意綁架、被政治程序鎖定和不敢突破意識形態(tài)束縛汽烦，這是普遍的行為模式，這一點(diǎn)在希臘危機(jī)中表現(xiàn)得最為明顯莉御。
