全世界的劫富济贫都帮不了穷人

2014-08-29 17:09:35来源：可可英语

　　Making men and women all equal. That I take to bethe gist of our political theory.”

　　“让所有男女都平等。我将此视为我们政治理论的主旨。”

　　This rejoinder to rightwingers who delight in rankand privilege is spoken by Lady Glencora, the free-spirited Liberal heroine of Anthony Trollope’sPhineas Finn. It encapsulates the cardinal error ofmuch of the left.

　　针对沉迷于等级和特权的右翼人士的这一反驳，来自19世纪英国小说家安东尼•特罗洛普(Anthony Trollope)所著的《Phineas Finn》一书中自由奔放的自由主义女主人公格伦科拉夫人(Lady Glencora)之口。它概括了很多左翼人士的根本错误。

　　Joshua Monk, one of the novel’s Radicals, sees through it. “Equality is an ugly word . . . andfrightens,” he says. The aim of the true Liberal should not be equality but “lifting up thosebelow him”. It is to be achieved not by redistribution but by free trade, compulsory educationand women’s rights.

　　这部小说的激进分子之一约舒亚•蒙克(Joshua Monk)看穿了这点。他说：“平等是一个丑陋的词汇……它让人害怕。”真正的自由主义者的目标不应该是平等，而是“提升那些地位比他低的人”。实现这一目标不是通过再分配，而是通过自由贸易、义务教育和妇女权利。

　　And so it came to pass. In the UK since 1800, or Italy since 1900, or Hong Kong since 1950,real income per head has increased by a factor of anywhere from 15 to 100, depending on howone allows for the improved quality of steel girders and plate glass, medicine and economics.

　　此后发生的情况正是这样，在英国自1800年开始，或者在意大利自1900年开始，或者在香港自1950年开始，实际人均收入增加了15倍至100倍之多，取决于人们在多大程度上计入钢梁和平板玻璃的质量提高，以及医药和经济学的进展。

本文关键字: 全世界的劫富济贫都帮不了穷人