经济学人下载:权势大亨们和飞机制造企业

Not so exceptional, after all?
毕竟，不会太出人意料?

There are those on the Democratic side who urge Mr Obama to place precisely the opposite bet. His great mistake, they say, is failing to see that, beyond the din the tea-partiers make, most Americans deeply resent the bailing-out of the bankers and the rest of the undeserving rich who led the economy to the abyss, and would rally to the president if he only found the courage to mete out the punishment these villains deserve. Only thus can he summon up a populist wave for himself and ride it to re-election.

在民主党派中也有人力促奥巴马总统采取恰恰相反的措施。他们说，他最大的错误就是没有看到在茶党人士的喧嚣以外，大多数美国人深深地怨恨对银行家和其他那些不配获得援助的富人实施应急措施，是这些富人们将经济带向危机的深渊，而且他们愿意支持总统如果他有勇气给予这些小人应有的惩罚。只有这样，他才能唤起一股支持他的平民主义浪潮并且一直到再次竞选。

And yet Mr Obama, as is his wishy-washy wont, is not biting. He still plans to end the Bush-era tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000. But for all his occasional digs at the fat cats and their jets, this president is not and will probably never be the avenging egalitarian the left of his party dreams of. His own bet seems to be that in the matter of inequality the American people are less exceptional than they like to think they are. They might be unusually tolerant of big gaps between the rich and poor, but they expect the rich to pay their way and the state to offer a helping hand to those who cannot rise without one. This middling bet might not be the most exciting reading of America’s mood. But it may be the shrewdest path to re-election.

而且奥巴马总统并不尖锐，就像他一贯空泛的作风一样。他仍然打算结束布什时代的税收减免政策，该政策针对年薪超过25万美元的群体。但是至于他对大亨们和他们飞机的偶然的嘲讽，作为总统的他不会，也许将永远不会成为他的党派所梦想的复仇平等主义者。他们也许不同寻常地忍受着贫富间的巨大差距，但是他们期待富人能自食其力，而且国家能为那些无法通过自己努力富裕起来的人们提供帮助。这个折中的做法也许不是最能激起美国人民热情的方式，但是这也许是获得连任的最有效的途径。

注释：

tea-party movement：茶党运动，茶党运动是美国公众发起的一场反对奥巴马政府的经济刺激计划和医疗改革方案，主张政府要减小规模、缩减开支、降低税收、弱化监管的自下而上形成的社会运动。之所以命名为茶党，可以追溯到1773年为了反对英国政府对北美殖民地实行的不公平税收政策而引发的波士顿倾茶事件，期间示威者打出的口号是“税收已经太多了”（Taxed Enough Al-ready），而它的首字母组合在一起正是单词“TEA”（茶）。由此茶党也就寓意着对苛捐杂税的抗争乃至对现实的不满。