Unhappy America郁闷美利坚Unhappy America郁闷美利坚 Jul 24th 2008From The Economist print editionIf America can learn from its problems, instead of blaming others, it will come back stronger.倘若美国愿意从自身的问题上吸取教训，而不是一味指责他人，王者必将归来，而且是以更强大的姿态归来NATIONS, like people, occasionally get the blues; and right now the United States, normally the world’s most self-confident place, is glum. Eight out of ten Americans think their country is heading in the wrong direction. The hapless George Bush is partly to blame for this: his approval ratings are now sub-Nixonian. But many are concerned not so much about a failed president as about a flailing nation. 人皆有悲伤郁闷的时候，国家也未能幸免。
原本最富自信的美国如今也陷入郁闷期，以至于竟有80%的民众认为它在走下坡路总统自然要负起责任，倒霉的小布什就这样成为众矢之的，现在他的支持率竟比遭遇水门事件时的尼克松还低但比起失败的总统，人们还更担心的还是飘摇的国家One source of angst is the sorry state of American capitalism. The “Washington consensus” told the world that open markets and deregulation would solve its problems. Yet American house prices are falling faster than during the Depression, petrol is more expensive than in the 1970s, banks are collapsing, the euro is kicking sand in the dollar’s face, credit is scarce, recession and inflation both threaten the economy, consumer confidence is an oxymoron and Belgians have just bought Budweiser, “America’s beer”.梦魔源于美国资本主义的萧条现状。
当年“华盛顿共识”骄傲地向世界宣布，开放市场和放松管制将是解决问题的不二法门，但现在的情况是，房价跌得比大萧条时期还快，石油比70年代危机时还贵，银行一家家倒闭，欧元骑到美元头上，信誉缺失，衰退和通胀威胁着经济发展， 消费者不知“信心”为何物，甚至连“美国的啤酒”百威都为比利时所收购And it’s not just the downturn that has caused this discontent. Many Americans feel as if they missed the boom. Between 2002 and 2006 the incomes of 99% rose by an average of 1% a year in real terms, while those of the top 1% rose by 11% a year; three-quarters of the economic gains during Mr Bush’s presidency went to that top 1%. Economic envy, once seen as a European vice, is now rife. The rich appear in Barack Obama’s speeches not as entrepreneurial role models but as modern versions of the “malefactors of great wealth” denounced by Teddy Roosevelt a century ago: this lot, rather than building trusts, avoid taxes and ship jobs to Mexico. Globalisation is under fire: free trade is less popular in the United States than in any other developed country, and a nation built on immigrants is building a fence to keep them out. People mutter about nation-building beginning at home: why, many wonder, should American children do worse at reading than Polish ones and at maths than Lithuanians?但引起不满的并不仅仅是现阶段的低迷现象。
许多美国人对于自己在经济繁荣中分得一杯羹持否定态度2002到2006年间，按收入的实际值计算，99%的美国人平均每年增长1%，然而收入最高的1%却以每年11%的增长速度不断积累财产布仕任职期间，3/4的经济成果流向收入金子塔最顶端美国人曾经唾弃欧洲人的经济红眼病，但如今，这种红眼瘟疫也在美国肆虐起来因此巴拉克·奥巴马演说中提到的“有钱人”再也不是以“企业家楷模”的形象出现，简直就是用现代版演绎一百年前罗斯福总统诟病的“穷凶极恶的大富豪”这帮罪犯，他们毫无诚信，逃税避税，还把工作机会转到墨西哥，害得美国本土民不聊生美国人对全球化怨声载道，对自由经济的厌恶感也高居发达国家榜首，最具讽刺意味的是，这个移民国家竟开始筑起围墙，生怕移民涌入人们嘀咕着，“兴家方能强国”，但一想到美国儿童阅读能力比不上波兰孩子，数学又不如立陶宛人，很多人就百思不得其解The dragon’s breath on your shoulder美国——身陷虎口Abroad, America has spent vast amounts of blood and treasure, to little purpose. In Iraq, finding an acceptable exit will look like success; Afghanistan is slipping. America’s claim to be a beacon of freedom in a dark world has been dimmed by Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and the flouting of the Geneva Conventions amid the panicky “unipolar” posturing in the aftermath of September 11th.在过去的几年间，美国为一些微不足道的理由已经劳民伤财。
倘若能在伊拉克找到一个合理的理由撤军，那么，伊战就可以说是一场胜利了，至少看起来是那么一回事；而阿富汗问题开始让美国捉襟见肘了尽管美国曾经口口声声说要成为黑暗世界的一盏明灯，指引人类走向光明和自由，但面对阿富汗关塔那摩基地、伊拉克阿布格里监狱、911以后美国对单级世界假惺惺的惶恐中表现出来的对日内瓦条约的蔑视，这美好的愿望也就黯然失色了Now the world seems very multipolar. Europeans no longer worry about American ascendancy. The French, some say, understood the Arab world rather better than the neoconservatives did. Russia, the Gulf Arabs and the rising powers of Asia scoff openly at the Washington consensus. China in particular spooks America—and may do so even more over the next few weeks of Olympic medal-gathering. Americans are discussing the rise of China and their consequent relative decline; measuring when China’s economy will be bigger and counting its missiles and submarines has become a popular pastime in Washington. A few years ago, no politician would have been seen with a book called “The Post-American World”. Mr Obama has been conspicuously reading Fareed Zakaria’s recent volume.当今世界似乎已呈多级化局势。
美国的霸主地位早已不是欧洲烦忧的对象，而人们也常说比起美国不可一世的新保守派，法国人更了解阿拉伯世界，俄罗斯、海湾国家以及正在崛起的亚洲大国公然嘲笑华盛顿共识，中国就更把美国吓个半死了，随着接下来几周奥运金牌的角逐，美国估计得被吓得瘫软中国的崛起和随之而来的美国的衰退成为街头巷尾的谈资，数数炮弹，算算潜艇，量量经济增长时间，华盛顿最流行的业余活动莫过于此了就在几年前，对于《后美国时代》这样的书，政客们还嗤之以鼻，但奥巴马捧起法理德.札卡瑞亞新作也已是不争的事实了America has got into funks before now. In the 1950s it went into a Sputnik-driven spin about Soviet power; in the 1970s there was Watergate, Vietnam and the oil shocks; in the late 1980s Japan seemed to be buying up America. Each time, the United States rebounded, because the country is good at fixing itself. Just as American capitalism allows companies to die, and to be created, quickly, so its political system reacts fast. In Europe, political leaders emerge slowly, through。