奥巴马政府试图安抚怒气冲天的民众

OVER the past year Vice-President Joe Biden has been barnstorming around America. As head of Barack Obama’s Middle-Class Task-Force, he has stumped for administration policy, attempting to sell the doings of Washington, dc, to the average voter. It’s a tricky job. Americans were keenly aware of growing inequality even before the recession; in 2007, the top 1% of earners took home 23.5% of all income earned, the highest share since 1928. Since the crisis, they have been incensed, and frustrated, by the return of good times to Wall Street while Main Street languishes.
在过去的一年里，美国副总统乔•拜登进行了多场演讲，足迹遍布全美。作为奥巴马的中产阶级问题特别工作组的负责人，该向广大选民兜售什么政策方案，拜登已经江郎才尽了。这是一个棘手的工作。甚至在危机之前，美国人民就已经敏锐的察觉到了经济增长的不平等。在2007年，全民收入的23.5%被最富有的1%的人获得，这是自1928年以来最高的比例。危机爆发到现在，华尔街重现了昔日的辉煌而民众仍在苦难中挣扎，人们对这样的境况感到十分愤怒和沮丧。

Stratospheric salaries in the financial sector are a meaty target, but middle-class weakness has more to do with deeper economic shifts. In recent decades the American economy has become increasingly polarised. Jobs have been plentiful for low and high-skilled workers, but employment opportunities for middle-skilled labourers have become much scarcer. While the Great Recession dealt a blow to Wall Street oligarchs, it greatly accelerated the withering of the broad middle.
金融部门高层的薪水是一个很好的政策目标，但处理中产阶级就业的疲软问题能更有利地改善经济。近十年来美国经济的两极化日益明显。对于低等和高等的求职者工作岗位很丰富，但中间阶层的劳动者的就业机会就少得可怜。在大萧条时期，政府对华尔街的金融寡头进行了严厉的打击，但这也加快了中产阶层萎缩的速度。

At a recent task-force forum at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, Mr Biden struck a populist tone while rallying the audience behind more financial regulation. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary,” he noted. And, he added, on Wall Street. But the task-force has the difficult job of reconciling public anger at the very rich with the troubles of the middle class.
最近在威斯康辛州密尔沃基大学召开的一次特别小组论坛上，副总统拜登发表了振奋人心的讲话：团结一致，坚持加强金融监管的方针不变。“要想在努力（work）之前找到成功（success），只有去翻字典，或者去华尔街。”他说。但鉴于民众对于中产阶级的就业问题义愤填膺，特别工作组的协调工作还很困难。

Technology is the main culprit. Automation and outsourcing have claimed whole classes of jobs. Among them are routine but vital tasks that were labour-intensive before the computing revolution: manufacturing and number-crunching jobs that used to pay handsomely. The economy now needs workers to do what can’t be done by machines or call-centres in Bangalore, which leaves iPad design and caretaker work but not enough in between. The supply of skilled workers has failed to keep pace with demand, so the college wage premium (see chart) has increased.
科技的发展是失业的罪魁祸首。自动化和外包已经渗透到各个阶层的岗位中。在计算机革命之前，这些千篇一律但必不可少的工作还是劳动密集型的：手工业和处理大量数据的工作曾经工资丰厚。现在市场只需要人们从事那些机器和班加罗尔的呼叫中心不能从事的工作，像设计iPad和警卫工作，但这些加起来都不足以满足需求。高技能员工够供不应求，所以大学毕业生的工资有所上涨（见图表）。

The administration has gestured towards creating better jobs. Mr Biden’s task-force has produced a slew of reports on the importance of green jobs, but the energy legislation that might change business incentives is paralysed, and Mr Obama is not doing much to push for it. More practical incentives would help: better child care would enhance women’s earning power, and student-loan reforms, as contained in the health-care bill, should make college more affordable. The task-force maintains touching faith in unions. In April Mr Biden’s chief economic adviser commended Mr Obama’s decision to endorse “pre-hire collective-bargaining agreements”, ad hoc union agreements that cover individual projects, for government contracts.
政府已经表示要创造更好的工作岗位。拜登的特别工作组发表了大量关于低碳职业重要性的报告，但改变商业激励的能源法案还不全面，总统奥巴马也没有为此进行更多努力。更切实际的政策激励会起到效果：更好的儿童福利能提高女性的工作能力，助学贷款的改革，就像医改法案中提及的那样，会让更多的人读得起书。特别工作组保持了工会人性化的理念。在4月拜登的首席经济顾问称赞了总统奥巴马对“雇佣前集体谈判协议”的支持。这个特设协议覆盖了个人，排除了政府组织。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

But as David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, points out in a new paper on labour market polarisation, fading union power has been more the effect than the cause of occupational shifts. Middle-skill jobs have declined as a share of occupations across Europe as well, and inequality has increased, though not as much as in America. America’s labour market may be unique in the extent of its middle-class troubles, but not in their existence. How to maintain a stable middle class amid sweeping technological change is a problem the developed world is only beginning to appreciate. Governments will be sorely tempted to protect workers, but a flexible, well-educated labour force is likely to fare best in the transition. That message is less politically galvanising than bank-bashing. But the vice-president should embrace it.
但麻省理工学院的经济学家大卫•奥特在一份新的劳动力市场两极化报告中指出，工会力量的削弱比职业转变带来的影响要大。在欧洲中等劳工的就业率也在下降，不平衡在加剧，但没有美国的严重。美国中产阶级就业问题的不断扩大可能独树一帜，但出现问题并不仅此一家。如何在科学技术不断发展的今天保持稳定的中间阶层就业率是发达国家的新问题。政府对保护劳工会更加竭尽全力，但一个灵活的，受过良好教育的劳动力市场在经济转型中会表现得更好。这种政策虽不像打击银行业那样振奋人心，但副总统先生应该考虑考虑。