富者更富,穷着更穷 中英互译.doc

Richer Rich, and Poorer Poor A while back I wrote about how there wasgreater inequality in wealth than there was in income. Now a new report from the Pew Economic Mobility Project shows that across the income distribution, every income class is earning more than it used to, even if the raises are uneven. But when it comes to the wealth distribution, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The report is based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, or P.S.I.D., a longitudinal data set that has followed families from 1968 to the present. First Pew looked at the earnings of todays adults compared to those of their parents generation, and found that the typical American in each income quintile earned more than his counterpart from a generation earlier. Pew Economic Mobility ProjectNotes: Numbers are adjusted for family size. Each quintile contains 20 percent of the weighted sample. The dashed line represents the 95th percentile of the P.S.I.D. sample. The median person in the panel today earns a family income of $51, 177, whereas the comparable figure from a generation ago was $27, 036 after adjusting for inflation. You can see similar bumps upward for the typical family in other quintiles, and that the very highest earners got the biggest raises. The median family in the top quintile earned $49, 075 a generation ago, and $111, 115 today, an increase of 126 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Thats a much bigger raise, no doubt, but at least every income strata saw its earnings rise. The trend for the distribution of wealth looks somewhat different. Pew Economic Mobility ProjectNotes: Wealth is adjusted for age and includes home equity. Each quintile contains 20 percent of the weighted sample. The dashed line represents the 95th percentile of the P.S.I.D. sample. Unlike with income, there were not across-the-board gains for wealth. The median person in the poorest quintile has a family net worth that is 63 percent less than that of his counterpart a generation ago: $2, 748, versus $7, 439. There were similar drops in wealth for the next two socioeconomic strata. On the other hand, the top fourth and fifth quintiles by wealth have gotten richer. The median family in the top socioeconomic class today (i.e., the family at the 90th percentile) is worth $629, 853, compared to $495, 510 in the last generation. Thats a 27 percent increase in the size of the median fortune in the top income stratum. In other words, compared to the last generation, wealth has been become more concentrated in the hands (and bank accounts and houses) of the richest Americans. Exactly why is debatable. The global markets for labor and capital have changed, of course. And the lower tax rate on capital gains which disproportionately helps richer people, who have more capital to invest has helped the richest amass ever higher net worths. In case youre interested, here are some more details on how these numbers were calculated, from the reports appendix: Note that most of data on wealth of the childrens generation are from before the housing bubble burst. If anything, then, these data may overstate the wealth of the childrens generation. 富者更富；穷者更穷不久前，我写过一篇关于财富分配不均大于收入分配不均的文章。现在一个来自皮尤经济流动性项目的报告显示，纵观收入分配，每个收入阶层都比以前的收入高，尽管增长的幅度不一致。但是若讲到财富分配的话，那么富者变得更富，穷者变得更穷。 此报告是基于一些来自动态研究小组（简称P.S.I.D.）的数据-一个纵向的从1958年开始跟踪一些家庭直到现在的数据链。首先皮尤看现在家庭中成年人的收入，然后与他们的父母那代人作对比，最后发现每个收入阶层的当代人都比他们父辈的收入要高。 在这个表中，中层家庭收入为51177美元，然而相比他们，去除通货膨胀的影响他们上一代的家庭收入为27046美元。你也可以看到其他阶层的收入也增加了很多，且增加最多的是高收入者。 对于最高层的中等家庭，上代人家庭收入为49075美元，而现在这代人的家庭收入为111115美元，除去通货膨胀的影响，他们的增长率高达126%。毋庸置疑，相对其他收入阶层来讲，他们无疑是较高的增长率，但是至少每个收入阶层的收入相比上一代都有所增长。 然而财富的分配则迥然不同。 与收入分配不同，对财富分配来说，没有所谓的跨界收入。现在最穷那个阶层的中等人的财富比他们上一代人的财富减少了63%：2748美元比7439美元。 紧挨着他们的两个阶层的财富也相同地有所下降。 而另一方面，最高的第四第五社会经济阶层的财富却有所增加。 最高社会经济阶层的中等家庭（如第90分的家庭）的财富为629853美元，而他们上一代的财富为495510美元。在上层收入阶层，他们的财富增长率达27%。 换句话讲，与上一代人相比，现在财富更多地集中在最富的美国人手里（银行账户和房产）。这正是争议所在。全球劳动力和资本市场已经改变，当然，资本获得税的降低，使得富人有更多的资本投资，从而帮助最富的人聚集更高的净利润。 如果你感兴趣的话，我们还有一些来自一本报告的附录-关于这些数字如何计算出来的细节 ： 参与财富分析的包括2277个孩子，这些孩子在1968年的时候年龄都在0岁到18岁之间，一直跟踪这些孩子到成年。 由于财富数据于1984年第一次收集，父辈的财富只测了那一年的。但是