富裕世界的贫困问题 Poverty in a rich world

Hello, I’m Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English. With me today is Harry. Hello, Harry.
你好，我是罗伯。欢迎收听《六分钟英语》。今天节目的嘉宾是哈里。你好，哈里。
Hello, Rob!
你好，罗伯。
Well, in this programme we’re talking about wealth. The world is getting richer, Harry.
今天节目我们要探讨的是财富。这个世界是越来越富裕了
Really? How come?
真的吗？怎么会？
Well, according to recent data, the number of people living in extreme poverty has halved in recent decades. More people own a car and a mobile phone.
根据最新数据，极度贫困的人口在近十几年来缩减了一半。拥有私家车和手机的人也越来越多了。
So, that’s all very good news. More people can have a good standard of living – standard of living is what we call the amount of money and quality of life people have in a particular society.
所以，这是好消息啊。越来越多的人享有更好的生活水平——生活水平是指我们说的在某一特定社会人们拥有的金钱数量和生活质量。
People in general may have a better life but there’s still a lot of inequality in different countries. Inequality - in other words some people have a lot of money and opportunities and others just don’t.
一般来说人们的生活是越来越好，但是在各国仍然存在许多不公平现象。不公平——换句话说就是一些人有许多金钱和机会，而另一些人没有。
So, individual governments have to find a way of reducing this inequality, to allow more people to have the opportunity to improve their lives.
所以各国政府要采取措施减少不公平现象，使更多的人有机会提高他们的生活质量。
Yes. In this programme we‘re talking about the gap between rich and poor and you’ll learn some words which will help you discuss this topic or read about it in the news. And now our quiz, Harry.
正是如此。今天我们还要讨论贫富差距问题，你也可以学习到一些新词，帮助你理解这一主题或阅读与之相关的新闻。现在是我们的小测试时间，哈里。
Ah, the legendary quiz! I’m ready!
哈哈，传说中的测试！我准备好了！
Good. Right. A recent report by Oxfam and Credit Suisse revealed how divided we all are when it comes to wealth. A lot of the wealth in the world is in the hands of very few people. That’s what I’m going to ask you about, Harry. How much of the global wealth is owned by the richest 1%? Is it:a)38%b)48% orc) 58%
好。牛津饥荒救济委员会和瑞士信贷最近发布的报告显示了贫富的巨大差距。世界的大部分财富掌握在少数人手中。问题来了，哈里。请问这1%的富人掌握了世界多少财富呢？a) 38%b) 48% c) 58%
Well, it’s only 1% of the population, so I would have to guess the lower one, 38%. Surely they can’t own more than that!
只有1% 的人口，那我猜应该是最少的一个选项吧，38%。他们肯定不能掌握太多财富。
Well, we’ll see if you got the right answer at the end of the programme. Now, let’s talk about rich and poor.As we said, experts have concluded that more people are living better when you look at the world as a whole, but in individual countries you can find people with hardly anything to eat…
在节目的最后我们再看你的选择是否正确。现在，我们来谈谈贫富问题。正如我们之前所说，专家得出的结论是如果从整体来看，越来越多的人过上了更好的生活。但是各国仍然有很多人食不果腹。
…and others with lots of houses, cars, land and so on… So, Rob, how can this situation be reversed?
而其他人则拥有很多房子、车子、土地等等???那么，罗伯，这个情况该如何扭转呢？
Well, David Bryer from Oxfam mentions a country which has achieved some success in trying to make the poor less poor. He is talking about Brazil. Listen to what Bryer says and tell me: what are the two words he uses meaning ‘the least money people are paid for the work they do’?
牛津饥荒救济委员会的大卫.布莱尔提到有一个国家成功缓解了穷人的贫困状况。那就是巴西.听听布莱尔是怎么说的，然后告诉我他用来表示人们付出劳动所获得的最低收入是用的哪两个词？
There are examples we can look to where countries are managing to reduce the gap between the super-rich and the rest. Brazil has historically very high levels of economic inequality. And they’ve been taking just some really sensible measures – measures around having more progressive tax, around investing in a higher minimum wage, investing in central public services, you know, these things that all governments can do that start to reverse this tide.
有很多国家成功缩小了贫富差距。巴西历史上经济曾严重失调。然后他们采取了非常有效的措施——增加累进税、在提高最低收入和公共设施方面加大投资，这些措施各国政府都可以用来扭转贫富悬殊的状况。
So David Bryer talks about a ‘minimum wage’. That’s the least a worker receives in payment for work they’ve done. He meant that if people are paid a higher minimum wage, they can eat better, seek a better education, and their children can have a better job in the future. They can be lifted out of poverty.
大卫.布莱尔提到的是最低工资。是指员工付出劳动后获得的最低收入。他的意思是如果人们的最低工资提高，他们就能吃的更好，获得更好的教育机会，他们的孩子就能在未来获得更好的工作。这样他们就能脱离贫穷。
And the economy can grow. More people with more money buy more things and factories produce more. A factory which produces more will need more workers. So, more jobs for all.
经济可以增长。人们的钱越多，就可以买更多的东西，工厂生产的也就更多。工厂要加大生产就需要更多的工人。最终会增加更多的就业。
Right. Another measure by the Brazilian government which is mentioned by the representative from Oxfam has to do with tax. Tax is the amount of money you pay to the government depending on your salary and the cost of things you buy… But we have to admit this, Rob: taxes are not popular.
没错。来自牛津饥荒救济委员会的另一个巴西代表采取的另一措施与税收有关。税收是指根据你的薪水和买东西的价格你要向政府缴纳的金钱数量。但是我们必须要承认，税收并不受欢迎。
That’s true. Many people don’t like paying tax because they don’t receive an immediate benefit from it. Some very rich people try to pay as little as possible. But one billionaire who thinks it’s important to pay and create conditions for governments to fight poverty is Bill Gates. The founder of Microsoft earned a lot of money, retired and, with his wife Melinda, created a foundation to help the poor. The BBC asked him what the very rich have to do to help reduce poverty. Let’s listen to his answer. What does he say rich people have to be? The word is an adjective.
确实如此。许多人不喜欢交税因为他们不能从中立即获益。一些非常富有的人总是尝试尽可能的少交税。但是一位亿万富翁认为，税收非常重要，为政府处理贫困问题创造了条件。这个人就是微软创始人比尔.盖茨。他赚了很多钱，退休后和他的妻子建立了基金来帮助穷人。英国广播公司问他在减少贫困方面，富人应当做些什么。让我们来听听他的回答。他说富人应当做什么呢？这个词是个形容词。
Well, their obligation of course is to pay their taxes, but our advice to them is that they all look at taking their wealth and being philanthropic - both in their own country and to help the global poorest. That’s a full-time work Melinda and I do, we find it very fulfilling, we love seeing the progress.
他们的责任当然是交税，但是我们的建议是他们应当拿出一部分钱，更加乐善好施——不但是在他们自己的国家而且要帮助全世界的穷人。这是梅琳达和我全力以赴正在做的事。我们发现这让我们非常满足，我们喜欢这一过程。
So rich people have to be ‘philanthropic’! It means they have to help poor people by giving their money.
所以富人们应当乐善好施。这意味着他们要给穷人钱，来帮助穷人。
And he says he and his wife find this giving to the poor ‘fulfilling’, in other words, it makes them happy and satisfied.
他说他和他的妻子发现帮助穷人令他们非常满足，换句话说，这令他们感到非常高兴和满意。
Well, that’s his message to the very, very, very, very rich in the world! To the… 1%!
这是他对世界上最最最最富裕的，那1%的人的建议。
The 1%...Well, you want the answer to my quiz question now, don’t you?
提到1%，你现在是不是想知道刚刚问题的答案呀？
Yes. You asked me how much of the global wealth is owned by the richest 1% of the world’s population.
是的。你问我1%的富人掌握世界上多少财富。
And the options I gave you were: 38%, 48% or 58%.
我给你的选项是：38%, 48%或58%。
And I guessed 38% based on the fact that I couldn’t imagine them earning more than that.
我猜38%，因为我想象不到他们能挣得比这还多。
I like your thinking, Harry, but I’m afraid the correct answer is actually (b) 48%. The wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world’s population – that’s according to a study by anti-poverty charity Oxfam.
我很欣赏你的思考，但是答案其实是(b) 48%。根据扶贫慈善组织牛津饥荒救济委员会的一项研究，世界上最富裕的1%的人口所掌握的财富马上要超过其余人口所拥有的财富总额。
I think it’s truly shocking that such a small number of people can own so much.
这太令人震惊了。这么少的人居然拥有这么多的财富。
You’re right. It’s an amazing statistic. OK, well, we’re almost out of time but let’s remind ourselves of some of the words that we’ve said today, Harry.
没错。这是个令人惊奇的数据。好了，我们的时间也快到了。我们再回忆一下今天提到的一些词。
standard of living
生活水平
inequality
不平等
minimum wage
最低工资
tax
税收
philanthropic
乐善好施
fulfilling
令人满足的