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2、 Ambition is not, of course, only a quest for riches. The impulse pervades every walk of life. 、 Here is Al Gore straining to be president — campaigning earnestly without any apparent joy — to fulfill an ambition that must date back to his diaper days. And does anyone really believe that the fierce rivalry among America’s immensely rich computer moguls is about money? What it concerns is the larger ambition to control the nation’s cyberagenda. 雄心当然不只是对财富的追求。这种推动力遍布社会各个行业,各个阶层。阿尔,戈尔 正在竭尽全力力争当选总统——尽心竭力地参加竞选活动, 毫无乐趣可言——为了实现一个 准是在孩提时代就已萌发的雄心壮志。 难道会有人真的相信美国及其富有的电脑巨头之间的 激烈竞争只是为了金钱?这场竞争的目的是实现更大的野心——控制美国的网络世界。 3、One-upmanship is a national mania. You see it every time a wide receiver prances into the 、 end zone and raises his index finger in triumph. More common is the search for status symbols — a bigger house, a more exotic vacation, a niftier bike, a faster computer — that separate us from the crowd. Money may not be the only way to satisfy this urge, but it’s the most common because it can so easily translate itself into some other badge of identity and standing. 对胜人一筹的狂热充斥着整个民族。 每当橄榄球边接应队员大步冲入球门区, 并怀着胜 利的喜悦竖起象征第一名的食指时, 你都会看到这种狂热。 更为普遍的则是对地位象征的追 求——更大的房子,更有异国情调的假期,更灵便的自行车,速度更快的电脑——这些使我 们有别于一般大众。金钱不一定是满足这种渴求的唯一途径,但它却是最常见的途径,因为 它可以很容易地转化为其他某种身份和地位的象征。 4、For many people, the contest seems futile. The New York Times recently ran a long story 、 on four families with roughly $50,000 of income who “wonder why they have to struggle so hard just to pay the bills.” The answer isn’t that their incomes are stagnating. Between 1992 and 1997, the median income of married couples rose from $48,008 to $51,681 in inflation-adjusted dollars,reports the Census Bureau. They are surely higher now. All the families profiled by the Times owned homes as well as things like big-screen TVs and elaborate outdoor grills. 对于许多人来说,这种竞争毫无意义。<纽约时报>最近刊登了一个长篇报道介绍 4 个 收入约为 5 万美元的家庭。他们都“奇怪为什么自己必须如此努力地工作,却仅仅能够缴清 账单。 ”问题的答案并不是他们的收入停滞不前。根据美国人口普查局地报告,1992 到 1997 年间,去除通货膨胀的因素,已婚夫妇收入的中位数从 48088 美元上升到了 51681 美元。现 在的收入水平肯定比以前高。 《纽约时报》所描述的家庭都拥有住宅以及大屏幕电视和制作 精良的户外烤架等高档消费品。 5、The problem isn’t that they’re running in place but that they’re running in the pack with 、 everyone else. Consumer products morph from luxury to convenience to necessity. Cars, TVs and microwaves all followed the cycle; now it describes Internet connections and cell phones. If you don’t buy by the final stage, you’re considered a crank or a pauper. There’s nothing new here. In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen argued that, once an item becomes widely owned, possessing it becomes a requisite for “self-respect.” People try to consume “just beyond their reach” so they “can outdo” those with whom they compare themselves. 问题不在于他们正跑在跑道上, 而在于他们正和所有其他人一起以同样的速度跑在比赛 领先者地后面。 消费品总是从奢侈品变为给人们带来便利的物品, 在变为生活奢侈品。 汽车、 电视和微波炉都经历了这样一个过程; 现在网络和手机也是一样。 如果你没有购买最先进的 产品,你就会被看成是怪物或者贫民。这并不是什么新鲜的现象。在 1899 年的著作《有闲 阶级论》里,索尔斯坦。维布伦就论述到,一旦一件商品被大多数人拥有,那么拥有它就成 为维持“自尊”的必要条件。人们想要购买“超过自己消费能力”的商品。这样他们就“可 以胜过”那些他们用来与自己进行比较的人。 6、Frustration is preordained. Despite the booming economy, a Newsweek Poll in June 、 reported that 29 percent of adults found it “more difficult” to “live the kind of life” they want, while only 23 percent found it less difficult. (For 47 percent, there was no change.) The stress can lead to tragedy. Perhaps this is the story of Mark Barton, the day trader who murdered 12 people. People routinely try to beat the system through get-rich-quick schemes. This partly explains the explosion in legalized gambling. In 1998, Americans lost about $50 billion gambling. 人们注定会感到失望。尽管经济繁荣, 《新闻周刊》6 月份的一份民意调查却显示百分 之 29 的成年人认为要过上自己想过的生活更困难了, 只有百分之 23 的人觉得更容易 (百分 之 47 的人觉得没有变化。,这种压力可能会导致悲剧。这也许就是马克。巴顿,那个谋杀 ) 了 12 个人的当天买卖股票投机者的情况。人们习以为常地试图用各种暴发致富的方法钻制 度的空子。这部分解释了合法化赌局急剧增加的原因。在 1998 年,美国人在赌博中输掉了 约 500 亿美元。 7、 、 We’re constantly advised to subdue ambition. Search for deeper meaning in family, friends and faith, we’re told. Money cannot buy happiness. This seems sensible — up to a point. The General Social Survey at the University of Chicago asks people to rate their happiness. The 1998 survey shows a somewhat stronger relation between money and happiness than earlier polls. About 34 percent of those with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 were “very happy” and 58 percent were “pretty happy.” Above $110,000, the ratings were 51 percent “very happy” and 45 percent “pretty happy.” (Marriage has a bigger impact than income; the “very happy” rate of couples is about double that of singles.) 我们不断地收到应该克制野心的忠告。 人们奉劝我们应该从家庭、 朋友和信仰中寻找人 生更深刻的意义。金钱买不到幸福。这似乎有一定道理。芝加哥大学展开的综合社会调查要 求人们评判自己的幸福等级。1998 年的调查显示出的金钱和幸福之间的相关性略高于往年 的调查。在收入为 3 万到 5 万美元之间的受访者中,大约 34%感到“很幸福” ,58%感到“相 当幸福” ,在收入为百万美元以上的受访者中,结果是 51%的人感到“很幸福” ,45%的人感 到“相当幸福”(婚姻比收入的影响更大;感到“很幸福”的夫妇所占比例是单身的两倍) , 。 8、 a recent book (Luxury Fever), Cornell University economist Robert Frank urges that we 、 In penalize overambition with a progressive consumption tax. The more people spend, the higher their tax rate. Spend $5,000 on a watch instead of $50, and your taxes go up; buy a car for $60,000 instead of $20,000, and pay more taxes. People wouldn’t be worse off, Frank argues, because they’d be shielded from the “arms race” pattern of competitive consumption. Indeed, they’d have more free time, because it wouldn’t pay to work so hard. 在最近的《奢侈品热》一书中,康奈尔大学的经济学家罗伯特·弗兰克敦促我们采用累 进消费税来惩罚过度雄心勃勃的行为。人们消费得越多,他们的税率就越高。花 5000 美元 而不是 50 美元买一块手表,你交的税就会增加;花 6 万美元而不是 2 万美元买一辆汽车, 你就要交更多的税。弗兰克认为,人们不会因此而变得更穷,因为他们将会得以避免“军备 竞赛” 式的竞争性消费。 实际上, 他们会有更多的空余时间, 因此如此努力地工作并不划算。 9、Hmm. Let’s rethink. Though unlovable, ambition is socially useful. It sustains economic 、 vitality. It prods people to take risks and exert themselves. The Internet is the offspring of workaholics spending eight-day weeks to invent a new world and make a fortune. When the process works well, gains overwhelm losses — and not just in economic output. Today’s hyper-prosperity has improved the social climate. Almost all indicators of confidence have increased. 嗯,让我们重新考虑一下。虽然不太可爱,雄心却对社会有益。它使经济保持活力。它 促使人们去冒险, 去努力。 因特网就是工作狂为为了创造一个新世界并借此发一笔大财而每 周工作 64 小时的产物。当他们的工作进展顺利时,所得远远大于所失—--而且这并不仅仅 在经济产出方面。 今天因特网的超级繁荣也改善了社会心态。 几乎所有的信心指数都有所增 加。 10、What people disdain as ambition they also venerate as opportunity. As Tocqueville long 、 ago noted, America was built on the notion that — unlike in Europe, with its hereditary aristocracy — people could write their own life stories. The ideal endures. A 1996 survey asked whether anyone starting poor could become rich; 78 percent of Americans thought so. And social standing is fluid everywhere. Ambition and its creative powers permeate the arts, the professions, academia, science. Because everyone can be someone, the competition to excel is unrelenting and often ruthless. 人们鄙视野心,然而同时他们又崇拜它,视其为机遇。正如托克维尔很久之前特别提到 的,美国是建立在----不像在具有世袭贵族的欧洲----相信人们可以书写自己的人生故事的观 念基础之上的。这个理想持久存在。1996 年的一项调查询问是不是所有开始时贫穷的人都 可以变得富有; 78%的美国人认为可以。 而且在任何领域, 人们的社会地位都是可以改变的。 雄心和它的创造力弥漫在艺术界、职业界、学术界和科学界。因为每个人都可以成名,为脱 颖而出的竞争是持久的,甚至常常是残酷的。
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