09年中高级口译考试备考材料（8）

2009-01-28 00:00:00来源：新东方

双语时事:金融危机击垮金钱婚姻？

For the past 10 years, the world of finance has found its way into more aspects of our lives, from our homes and retirements to our milk and gas prices. It also crept into relationships and marriages.

Wealthy couples will almost always deny any wealth effect in their relationships. When the 30-year-old blonde says she married her 60-year-old husband for love (and not the $300,000-a-year 'personal budget') you know there likely is more to the story. Even longtime couples I met for 'Richistan' often had agreements and deals related to money, whether it involved post-nups to required funds for pet philanthropy projects. It's naive to believe money doesn't play a role in every relationship, even if that role is small.

The question now is what happens when the world of finance retreats? Do mercenary marriages unravel or become closer?

High-end divorce attorneys I talk to say they are seeing far fewer divorces now that the wealthy have less wealth. The reason is simple: neither the wife nor husband feel like they can afford to divorce. 'If a couple's wealth has dropped by 30%, the wife or husband would get that much less if they split,' Bill Zabel, a prominent New York attorney told me a few weeks ago.

Another scenario is that more money-infused marriages will collapse because the wife or husband who was in it for the money now has less of it. This was seen in an amusing quote in a New York Times article by Peg Tyre, from a mom in Manhattan's trendy Tribeca neighborhood.

This women, who is married, at least for now, to a Wall Street executive, put it rather bluntly:

'My job was to run the household and the children's lives,' she said. 'His job is to provide us with a nice lifestyle.' But his bonus has disappeared, and his annual pay has dropped to $150,000 from $800,000 a year. 'Let me just say this,' she said, 'I'm still doing my job.'

Setting aside the likely trials of her job versus his, the quote highlights the financial dynamic underlying their relationship. His 'job' is to earn a certain amount of money, my 'job' is to manage the house and kids. 'In sickness health, for rich or for poor' has been replaced by 'Earn six figures or else.'

What the quote ignores is basic economics: He can't possibly do his 'job' if the economy is collapsing. His stated 'job' relied on a massive financial bubble and overpaid Wall Streeters. It isn't like his choice is earning either $150,000 OR $800,000 a year and he choose the lesser amount, or that he isn't working hard enough. Hopefully this marriage isn't dependent on this mirage of finance.

Yet while the quote is good for stirring emotions, I don't think it is reflective of the real impact of the financial crisis on marriages. The more likely impact is that mercenary marriages freeze for a while until things pick up.

What do you think readers? How will the crisis affect mercenary marriages?

过去十年来，金钱世界在我们生活的方方面面都留下了它的印记，从我们的住房到退休生活，从牛奶到汽油价格。它还潜入了我们的社交和婚姻生活。

富有的夫妇几乎总是否认财富对他们婚姻关系的影响。当一位30岁的金发女郎因为爱（而不是每年30万美元的“个人开销”）嫁给她60岁的丈夫时，你知道，这里可能有更多的故事可说。我写《富人国》(Richistan)一书时采访的结婚多年的老夫妇经常也会涉及到金钱的交易和约定，比如涉及婚后协议、要求给宠物慈善项目出钱。认为金钱对每个人的婚姻关系没有影响无疑是天真的想法，即使影响并不大。

Anna Nicole Smith现在的问题是，金钱世界陷入低迷会给这些关系带来什么？因钱而来的婚姻会瓦解呢，还是会变得更牢固？

我交谈过的高级离婚律师说，他们现在遇到的富人财富缩水后的离婚案非常之少。原因很简单：不论是丈夫还是妻子都觉得承担不起离婚的成本。纽约知名律师扎贝尔(Bill Zabel)几周前对我说，如果一对夫妇的财富减少了30%，那么离婚的话不论妻子还是丈夫得到的会更少。

另一个可能出现的情况是，将有更多靠金钱推动的婚姻会分崩离析，原因是，因为金钱而接受婚姻的妻子或丈夫现在能享有的钱变少了。泰厄(Peg Tyre)在《纽约时报》一篇文章中引用的一段有趣的话就反映了这一点。说话的是住在曼哈顿时尚的翠贝卡一带的一位母亲。

这位妇女嫁给了（至少现在还是这样）一位华尔街人士。她的话很直率：

“我的工作是管理家务、照料孩子们的生活。他的工作是向我们提供体面的生活方式”，她说。但他的奖金泡汤了，年薪也从80万美元降到了15万。“我只能这么说，”她说，“我还在做我的工作”。

且不说她的工作跟他相比可能更痛苦，她的这番话明显反映了他们婚姻基础上的金钱因素：他的“工作”是挣到一定数量的钱，我的“工作”是管理家和孩子。婚礼誓言中的“不论健康还是疾病，不论富有还是贫穷”变成了“不论能挣到六位数还是挣不到。”

这段话里忽略了基本经济的因素：如果经济崩溃，他不可能完成他的“工作”。给他规定的工作要依赖大量的金融泡沫和薪酬高于合理水平的华尔街从业人员。情况并不是他在赚15万还是80万的选项之间选择了较少的那个，也不是他工作不够努力。但愿这段婚姻不是建立在金融幻像基础上的。

不过，虽然这位女士的话有很大的情绪，但我并不认为它是金融危机对婚姻关系真实影响的反映。真实的影响更有可能是，金钱婚姻将在一段时间内暂时冻结。

读者朋友，你的看法又如何呢？危机会给金钱婚姻带来怎样的影响呢？

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