普通美國人生活質量落于人后

Enjoying the Low Life?

普通美國人生活質量落于人后

The United States is the most powerful colossus in the history of the world: Our nuclear warheads could wipe out the globe, our enemies tweet on iPhones, and kids worldwide bop to Beyoncé.

美國是有史以來最具影響力的大國：我們的核彈頭能把整個地球夷為平地，我們的敵人用iPhone上Twitter，全世界的孩子都跟隨碧昂斯(Beyoncé)的音樂舞動身體。

Yet let’s get real. All this hasn’t benefited all Americans. A newly released global index finds that America falls short, along with other powerful countries, on what matters most: assuring a high quality of life for ordinary citizens.

不過還是認清現(xiàn)實吧。這一切并不能讓每一個美國人都受益。最新發(fā)布的一項全球指數(shù)表明，美國和其他大國一樣，在最重要的事情上做得還不夠好，即：讓普通人過上高品質的生活。

The Social Progress Index for 2015 ranks the United States 16th in the world. We may thump our chests and boast that we’re No. 1, and in some ways we are. But, in important ways, we lag.

美國在2015年社會進步指數(shù)(Social Progress Index for 2015)排行榜上名列世界第16位。我們可能會拍著胸脯打包票，說我們是世界第一;在某種方面也的確如此。但在一些重要的方面，我們落后了。

The index ranks the United States 30th in life expectancy, 38th in saving children’s lives, and a humiliating 55th in women surviving childbirth. O.K., we know that we have a high homicide rate, but we’re at risk in other ways as well. We have higher traffic fatality rates than 37 other countries, and higher suicide rates than 80.

該排行榜顯示，美國在人均壽命方面名列第30位，在避免兒童死亡方面名列第38位，在避免女性死于分娩方面則相當丟人地名列第55位。美國的謀殺率非常高，這我們都知道，但我們在其他方面同樣面臨著危險。我們的交通肇事死亡率排在37個國家前面，自殺率排在80個國家前面。

We also rank 32nd in preventing early marriage, 38th in the equality of our education system, 49th in high school enrollment rates and 87th in cellphone use.

此外，我們在防止早婚方面名列第32位，我們的教育體系公平度名列第38位，高中入學率名列第49位，手機使用率名列第87位。

Ouch. “We’re No. 87!” doesn’t have much of a ring to it, does it?

哎喲!“我們是第87名!”這話并不怎么有趣，對吧?

Michael E. Porter, the Harvard Business School professor who helped devise the Social Progress Index, says that it’s important to have conventional economic measures such as G.D.P. growth. But social progress is also a critical measure, he notes, of how a country is serving its people.

幫助設計了社會進步指數(shù)的哈佛商學院教授邁克爾·E·波特(Michael E. Porter)說，GDP等傳統(tǒng)的經濟指標很重要，但社會進步指數(shù)也是衡量一個國家在為人民服務方面做得怎么樣的重要標尺。

“We’re not now No. 1 in a lot of stuff that traditionally we have been,” said Professor Porter, an expert on international competitiveness. “What we’re learning is that the fact that we’re not No. 1 on this stuff also means that we’re facing long-term economic stresses.”

“我們在很多事情上都不再像以往一樣是第一名了，”身為國際競爭力專家的波特教授說。“我們所學到的是，在個排行榜上并非第一名的事實，還意味著我們正面臨長期的經濟壓力。”

“We’re starting to understand that we can’t put economic development and social progress in two separate buckets,” Porter added. “There’s a dialectic here.”

“我們開始明白，不能把經濟發(fā)展和社會發(fā)展分割開來，”波特補充說。“兩者之間存在辯證關系。”

The top countries in the 2015 Social Progress Index are Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, New Zealand and Canada. Of the 133 countries rated, Central African Republic is last, just after Chad and Afghanistan.

在2015年社會進步指數(shù)排行榜上名列前茅的國家包括挪威、瑞典、瑞士、冰島、新西蘭和加拿大。中非共和國在133個被納入榜單的國家中排名墊底，阿富汗和乍得分別排在倒數(shù)第二位和倒數(shù)第三位

Sri Lanka does better than India. Bangladesh outperforms Pakistan. Both the Philippines and South Africa do better than Russia. Mongolia comes in ahead of China. And Canada wallops the United States.

斯里蘭卡排在印度前面。孟加拉排在巴基斯坦前面。菲律賓和南非都排在俄羅斯前面。蒙古排在中國前面。加拿大排在美國前面。

One way of looking at the index is to learn from countries that outperform by having social indicators better than their income levels. By that standard, the biggest stars are Costa Rica and Uruguay, with New Zealand and Rwanda also outperforming.

我們可以仔細研究這個排行榜，并向社會進步指數(shù)排名高于收入水平排名的國家學習。以這一標準論，哥斯達黎加和烏拉圭是最耀眼的明星，新西蘭和盧旺達的表現(xiàn)也很不錯。

“This takes time,” said Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, which produces the index. “Costa Rica is an overperformer because of its history.”

“這需要時間，”社會進步促進會( Social Progress Imperative)總裁邁克爾·格林(Michael Green)說。“哥斯達黎加表現(xiàn)出色是有歷史原因的。”社會進步促進會是社會進步指數(shù)的編制機構。

Green notes that Costa Rica offered free, universal primary education in the 19th century. In the 20th century, it disbanded its military forces and invested some of the savings in education. One payoff: Some surveys have found Costa Ricans among the happiest people in the world.

格林指出，哥斯達黎加在19世紀普及了免費初等教育，在20世紀解散了軍隊，并把部分節(jié)省下來的開支投進了教育領域。回報之一是：一些調查顯示，哥斯達黎加人的幸福感排在世界前列。

Then there are the underperformers that do worse than would be expected from their income level. Saudi Arabia leads that list.

也有一些表現(xiàn)不如預期的國家，其社會進步指數(shù)排名與收入水平完全不匹配。頭一個就是沙特阿拉伯。

The Social Progress Index, now in its second year, might seem a clarion call for greater equality, but that’s not quite right. Professor Porter and his number-crunchers found only a mild correlation between economic equality (measured by Gini coefficient) and social progress. What mattered much more was poverty.

去年剛剛誕生的社會進步指數(shù)，或許看似在強烈呼吁更大的平等，但事實并非完全如此。波特教授和他的數(shù)據分析師們發(fā)現(xiàn)，經濟平等(以基尼系數(shù)衡量)和社會進步之間關聯(lián)度并不太高。貧窮與社會進步的關聯(lián)要密切得多。

Of course, wealthy countries with high poverty tend to be unequal as well. But inequality at the top seems to matter less for well-being than inequality at the bottom. Perhaps we should worry less about reining in the top 1 percent and more about helping the bottom 20 percent?

當然了，貧困率高的富裕國家往往是不平等的。但對社會福祉而言，最高層的不平等帶來的影響似乎小于最底層的不平等的影響?；蛟S我們應當少去琢磨如何遏制居于前1%的富人，多去幫助居于后20%的窮人?

On the other hand, one way to finance empowerment programs is to raise taxes on tycoons. And when there is tremendous inequality, the wealthy create private alternatives to public goods — private schools, private security forces, gated communities — that lead to disinvestment in public goods vital to the needy.

另一方面，為賦權項目提供資金的一個辦法是對富豪增稅。當社會存在極大不平等的時候，富人會創(chuàng)造出用以替代公共產品的私人產品，譬如私立學校、私人安全部隊和封閉式社區(qū)，從而導致資金撤出對窮人至關重要的公共產品領域。

In any case, the 2015 Social Progress Index should serve notice to Americans — and to people around the globe. We obsess on the wrong measures, so we often have the wrong priorities.

不論如何，2015年社會發(fā)展指數(shù)給美國人以及全世界的人提了個醒。我們過于依賴錯誤的指標，因此常常分不清主次。

As an American, what saddens me is also that our political system seems unable to rise to the challenges.

作為一個美國人，我還為另一件事感到難過：我們的政治體系似乎無法迎接這些挑戰(zhàn)。

As Porter notes, Americans generally understand that we face economic impediments such as declining infrastructure, yet we’re frozen. We appreciate that our education system is a mess, yet we’re passive.

正如波特所言，美國人都知道，我們面對著基礎設施走下坡路等種種經濟障礙，但我們一動不動。我們意識到我們的教育體系一團糟，但我們消極以對。