为什么美国的失业率会突然这么高

来源：卫报双语阅读

More than three million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, a total far higher than in any previous week in the modern history of the United States, has been greeted with surprising equanimity by the nation’s political leaders.

上周，三百多万美国人申请失业救济金。这个数字远远高于美国现代史上任何一周。而美国国家领导人却对此镇定得令人吃惊。

 

But the sudden collapse of employment was not inevitable. It is instead a disastrous failure of public policy that has caused immediate harm to the lives of millions of Americans, and that is likely to leave a lasting mark on their future, on the economy and on our society.

就业的突然崩溃并非不可避免。但现在，公共政策的彻底失败不仅直接伤害了数百万美国人的生活，还可能对他们未来的经济和我们社会都产生深远的影响。

A number of European countries, after similarly failing to control the spread of the virus, and thus being forced to lock down large parts of their economies, have chosen to protect jobs.Denmark has agreed to compensate Danish employers for up to 90 percent of their workers’ salaries.

一些欧洲国家同样未能控制住病毒的传播，因而不得不限制大部分的经济活动，但他们选择保护就业。例如，丹麦承诺对本国雇主所支付的90%的工人工资予以补偿。

 

Some countries only pay employers for workers who aren’t working. The German government chips in even for workers kept on part time. In either case, the goal is to preserve people in existing jobs — to preserve the antediluvian fabric of the economy to the greatest extent possible, for the benefit of workers and firms.

而有的国家只向雇主支付没有上班工人的工资。德国政府甚至贴补兼职工。无论是哪种方式，其目的都是为了保住人们现有的工作，以便最大程度地保护经济的原有结构，而工人和公司都将获益。

 

Preserving jobs is important because a job isn’t merely about the money. Compensated labor provides a sense of independence, identity and purpose; an unemployment check does not replace any of those things.

保住工作非常重要，因为工作不仅仅只是钱。有偿劳动可以提供独立感，认同感和目的感，而失业救济支票替代不了这其中的任何东西。

 

People who lose jobs also lose their benefits — and in the United States, that includes their health insurance. And a substantial body of research on earlier economic downturns documents that people who lose jobs, even if they eventually find new ones, suffer lasting damage to their earnings potential, health and even the prospects of their children. The longer it takes to find a new job, the deeper the damage tends to be.

失业的人也同时也失去了福利，而在美国，这还包括医疗保险。大量针对经济衰退早期文献的研究发现，即便失业的人最后找到了新工作，其收入潜力，健康，甚至是孩子的未来都将遭受持久的损害。寻找新工作的时间越长，其遭受的损害就越大。

 

American companies have long fought to maximize their freedom to shed workers during economic downturns, and American economists have tended to agree, arguing that easy separation facilitates adjustments in the allocation of resources, allowing weaker businesses to shrink and stronger businesses to grow.

长期以来，美国公司一直努力争取在经济衰退的时候尽可能自由裁员的权利。而美国经济学家倾向于同意这一点，认为简单的脱离有利于优化资源配置，促进企业优胜劣汰。

This is a dubious argument even in normal times. The American economy has outpaced Europe, and the freedom to fire workers may well be a factor. But the benefits have accrued primarily to shareholders. The European model has been better for workers, who have experienced faster income growth than in the United States.

即使是在平时，这种说法都非常可疑。美国经济能够超过欧洲，自由的裁员也许是其中一个因素。但美国主要是股东获益，而欧洲模式对工人更有利，其收入的增长比美国快。

 

And this downturn is not an example of the kind of periodic free-market “creative destruction”  — it’s a public-health crisis.

并且，这次经济下行并非属于自由市场定期“创造性破坏”，这是一场公共卫生危机。

 

There’s no obvious reason to think the economy would benefit from the kinds of big economic shifts facilitated by mass unemployment.

没什么理由认为经济将从大量人员失业所导致的重大变化中获益。