给这礼拜特邀外汇局人士的社课讲座"钱包内的波动"参考资料 Anxious Middle Class Counts Its Euros With Care 焦虑中产阶级 度日精打细算 By Carter Dougherty and Katrin Bennhold LES ULIS, France – When their local bakery in this town south of Paris raised the price of a baguette for the third time in six months, Anne-Laure Renard and Guy Talpot bought a bread maker. When gasoline became their biggest single expense, they sold one of their two cars. 巴黎南郊雷祖里镇的面包店，半年内三度调涨法国面包的价格後，安罗荷‧赫纳与盖‧塔 波决定买一部面包机。在汽油变成最大的一笔支出後，他们将两部车卖了一部。 Their combined annual income of 40,000 euros, about $62,500, lands Ms. Renard, a teacher, and Mr. Talpot, a postal worker, smack in the middle of France’s middle class. And over the last year, prices in France have risen four times as fast as their salaries. 为人师表的赫纳女士与邮政人员塔波，年收入共4万欧元，约6万2,500美元，在法国中产 阶级中刚好落在中间。但是去年一年，法国物价涨幅是薪资调幅的四倍。 “In France, when you can’t afford a baguette anymore, you know you’re in trouble,” Ms. Renard said one recent evening in her kitchen, as her partner measured powdered milk for their 13-month-old son, Vincent. “The French Revolution started with bread riots.” 最近一个夜晚，当另一半在为两人13个月大的儿子文森量奶粉泡牛奶时，赫纳在厨房中说 ：「在法国，当你买不起法国面包时，你就知道问题大了。法国革命是由面包暴动引爆。 」 The European dream is under assault, as the wave of inflation sweeping the globe mixes with this continent’s long-stagnant wages. Families that once enjoyed Europe’s vaunted quality of life are saving their money for necessities, and cutting back on extras like movies and vacations abroad. 通货膨胀浪潮席卷全球，加上欧陆薪水长期冻涨，欧洲人的美梦碎了。一度过着欧洲人爱 现的优质生活的家庭，开始省钱大作战，以应付必需品的支出，他们也减少看电影和到外 国度假等额外开销。 Potentially more disturbing – especially to the political and social order – are the millions across the continent grappling with the realization that they may have lives worse, not better, than their parents. 可能更让人不安的，尤其是对政治与社会秩序而言，是欧洲大陆数以百万计的人，正努力 认清，他们的日子可能过得比父母差，而不是更好。 “I have this feeling that there is a wall in front of us,” said Axel Marceau, a 41-year-old schoolteacher living outside of Frankfurt. “We’re just not going to get any further.” 41岁的学校教师艾克塞‧马索，家住法兰克福郊区，他说：「我有这种感觉，我们前面有 一堵墙，让人无法再往前进。」 A study by the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin found that the broad middle of the German work force, defined as workers making from 70 to 150 percent of the median income, shrunk to 54 percent of the population last year, from 62 percent in 2000. 柏林「德国经济研究所」的研究指出，德国劳动力的广大中产阶级，其定义为劳工所赚薪 水为收入中位数的70%到150%，去年中产阶级占人口比率降至54%，2000年占62%。 Mr. Marceau’s father had a teaching job that afforded the family upward mobility, from owning a home to fancy ski vacations. But today, Mr. Marceau said, a new class of bankers, executives and other high earners has taken over. “I feel like we’ve been in a slow process of losing to the people up top,” he said. 马索的父亲从事教职，家人的生活因此得以向上提升，如拥有房子和享受豪华滑雪度假等 。马索说，现在银行家、高级主管、其他高收入者形成的新阶级取而代之。他说：「我感 觉我们正慢慢输给最高层的人。」 To be sure, Europe’s middle class is still larger than the number of people at risk of falling into poverty – and, by many measures, more protected than the American middle class. But policy makers worry that could change as the European economy starts to feel the drag of an American slowdown and high inflation. 当然，欧洲中产阶级，还是比有濒临贫穷之虞的人多，而且透过多种措施，他们比美国中 产阶级获得更多保障。但是因为欧洲经济已开始感到被美国经济走缓和高通膨拖累，决策 者担心，这一切可能改变。 “The problem,” said Julián Cubero, chief economist for Spain for BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, “is that if your salary rises more slowly than the cost of products you buy on a daily basis, you feel poorer every day.” 西班牙数一数二的BBVA银行（毕尔巴鄂维茨卡亚对外银行）首席经济学家朱利安‧库贝洛 说：「问题出在当薪资涨幅比日常购买的用品涨幅慢时，你会觉得一天比一天穷。」 Since 1999, prices have risen 22.5 percent in the 27 member states of the European Union, and 18.8 percent in the 15 countries that use the euro. 1999年以来，欧洲联盟27个成员国的物价涨了22.5%，使用欧元的15国，物价也涨了18.8% 。 Much of the declining purchasing power of European workers can be traced to those numbers, and to policy decisions and economic developments over the last decade when globalization began to reshape Europe and the world. 欧洲劳工购买力下滑，大致可以追溯到上述数字，也可上溯到过去十年，当全球化带动欧 洲与全球改造之际的政治决策和经济发展。 In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, the decline in purchasing power began in 2000, when employers started wresting wage concessions from unions, or simply shifting jobs to Eastern Europe and China. 欧洲最大经济体德国的购买力，2000年开始下滑，当时雇主开始就薪资减让与工会展开角 力，或索性将工作转移到东欧或中国大陆。 In France, the 35-hour workweek kept average annual pay increases below 1 percent for nearly a decade, said Robert Rochefort, the director general of Credoc, an organization in Paris that researches living standards. 巴黎研究生活水平的组织，Credoc总裁贺伯‧何希福说，法国实施每周35工时，将近十年 将平均，年薪涨幅维持在1%以内。 Stagnant pay and soaring prices have hit Italy hardest. Recent statistics from the country’s main shopkeepers’ union showed consumer spending was down 1.1 percent in January from a year earlier, the biggest drop in three years. Leisure and recreation spending fell 5.5 percent. 薪资冻涨、物价飙升，以义大利受害最深。该国最大零售商会最近的统计数字显示，1月 消费者支出较去年同期下降1.1%，为三年来最大跌幅。休闲娱乐支出下跌5.5%。 Francesca Di Pietro, a secretary, and her partner, Gianluca Pompei, a project manager, are part of that trend. Since their son, Mario, was born nearly two years ago, they have spent little on entertainment. 秘书法兰西丝卡‧狄皮耶卓，与她的另一半、专案经理季安路卡‧庞培，是这股趋势的受 害人。大约两年前，儿子马里欧出生後，他们的娱乐支出少之又少。 “I’ve become anxious about unexpected expenses,” Ms. Di Pietro said. To stretch their monthly income of about 2,500 euros ($3,900), the couple has been getting hair cuts at the local beauty school, packing a lunch for work, buying secondhand clothes in market stalls and vacationing at campsites instead of hotels. 狄皮耶卓说：「超出预算时，我会变得很焦虑。」为了尽全力让约2,500欧元（3,900美元 ）月薪够花用，这对夫妇开始到当地的美容美发学校剪发、带午餐上班、到地摊买二手衣 、到营地而非饭店度假。 “I look at people on the bus and they seem sad and beaten down,” said Ms. Di Pietro, referring to Italy’s malaise. “We’re 40 years old. We should be feeling more combative, but really all we feel is frustrated.” 狄皮耶卓谈及义国不景气时说：「我望着巴士里的人都是满脸愁容、垂头丧气。我们40岁 了，应该斗志昂扬，却感觉心灰意冷。」 关键字句 薪资冻涨（stagnant wage）与物价飙涨（soaring price），导致欧洲中产阶级（ middle class）自觉一天比一天穷困（feel poorer every day）。曾过着高生活品质（ quality of life）的中产家庭，现在也必须节食缩衣，减少（cut back）看电影、度假 的额外开销（extra），以便有钱购买日常必需品（daily necessities ）。这些中产阶 级同时正努力面对（grapple with）一项认知（realization），亦即他们的生活可能过 得不如父母。 谈到义大利的不景气（malaise），居民狄皮耶卓形容她看到巴士上的人，个个看来垂头 丧气（beaten down），她认为和自己一样40岁左右的人，本该斗志高昂（combative）， 现在却只有心灰意冷（frustrated）一种感觉。 原文参照 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/worldbusiness/01middle.html http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/29/business/29prices.php 2008-05-20/联合报/G4版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王丽娟 原文请见5月20日纽时周报五版右 上 ～ 顺便练练英文吧！^^ --

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