American Dreams There
is a common response to America among foreign writers: the U.S. is a land of
extremes where the best of things are just as easily found as the worst. This is
a cliche (陈词滥调). In the land of black and white, people should
not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between the rich and the
poor in the world. But the American Dream offers a way out to everyone.
1 No class system or government stands
in the way. Sadly, this old argument is no longer true. Over
the past few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the
American economy. The gap between the rich and the poor has
widened and widened. 2
Over the past 25 years the median U.S. family income has gone up 18
percent. For the top 1 percent, however, it has gone up 200 percent. Twenty-five
years ago the top fifth of Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the
bottom fifth. 3
Inequalities have grown worse in different regions. In California, incomes for
lower class families have fallen by 4 percent since 1969.
4 This has led to an economy hugely in favor of a small
group of very rich Americans. The wealthiest 1 percent of households now control
a third of the national wealth. There are now 37 million Americans living in
poverty. At 12.7 percent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the
developed world. Yet the tax burden on America’s rich is
falling, not growing. 5 There was an
economic theory holding that the rich spending more would benefit everyone as a
whole. But clearly that theory has not worked in reality. A.
Nobody is poor in the U.S. . B. The top 0.01 percent of
households has seen its tax bite fall by a full 25 percentage points since
i980. C. For upper class families they have risen 41
percent. D. Now it is 9.8 times. E. As it does
so, the possibility to cross that gap gets smaller and smaller.
F. All one has to do is to work hard and climb the ladder towards the
top.