How to Get the Poor off Our Conscience

How to Get the Poor off Our Conscience

John Kenneth Galbraith

Guide to Reading

John Kenneth Galbraith is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Emeritus1, at Harvard University. He is internationally known for his development of Keynesian2 and post-Keynesian economics3as well as for his writing and his active involvement in American politics.

In 1958 Galbraith published The Affluent Society, which challenged the myth of the U.S. economy’s reliance on the gross national product for its social stability, positing4instead that consumer’s taste for luxury goods dictated5the economy’s

1

荣誉退职(或退休)的，退休后保留头衔的an emeritus professor (=a professor emeritus)荣誉教授 2

['keinziən] 凯恩斯的、凯恩斯主义的：约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯的经济理论的或与之有关的；尤指提倡通过财政项目来提高就业并刺激商业活动的理论；Keynes凯恩斯，约翰·梅纳尔：(1883-1946) 英国经济学家，他认为严重的失业是由于消费需求的不足，可以通过一些资助项目来缓解。他也提倡通过赤字开支来刺激经济活动 3

The theoretical foundation of Post Keynesian economics is the principle of effective demand, that demand matters in the long as well as the short run, so that a competitive market economy has no natural or automatic tendency towards full employment. 4

1. To affirm or assume the existence of; postulate.假定，断定：证实或假定…的存在；2. To put forward, as for consideration or study; suggest: 提出以供考虑或研究；建议

focus at the expense of the common welfare.

The title of this essay seems to suggest that Professor Galbraith is joining other philosophers and economists in trying to find a theory to get the poor off our conscience. This impression will not change until we come to the end of the essay and unless we have a firm grasp of the ironic tone of the writing.

In the essay, the author brings up five historical solutions for getting the poor off our conscience. He then concentrates on five current designs for getting the poor off our conscience. In presenting the historical solutions, the author is implicit in his criticism. However, he comes out into the open6 when he deals with the current designs. Galbraith does not mince7words in criticizing Reagan’s economic policy, especially his rocketing8defense budget. Galbraith warns at the end of the essay “Civil discontent and its consequences do not come from contented people.” He points out that to make the poor contented is in the interest of9 the big business.

5

控制，支配；决定；对…有决定性影响：The choice of computer is dictated by our special needs.对计算机的选择取决于我们的特殊需求。 6

坦率,公开谈,公开 Other newspapers that had been aware of the

problem then followed suit, forcing the Government to come out into the open. 其他意识到这个问题的报纸也相继做了报道，迫使把事情公布于众。 7

客气地说，委婉地说，欲言又止，吞吞吐吐，温和地表示： to mince no words不吞吞吐吐，直言不讳Don't mince matters, please.请直率地说吧。 8

rocket: To soar or rise rapidly迅速上升或猛涨rocketing prices价格飞涨 9

为了，为了…的利益；符合…的利益Whatever we do must be in the interest of the people. 我们所做的一切必须符合人民的利益。

Today the gaps in wealth between the rich and the poor in the United States have grown wider. According to a Federal Reserve10 report of Jan. 22, 2003, the difference in median11net wealth12 between the 10% of families with the highest incomes and the 20% of families with the lowest incomes jumped1370% from 1998 through 2001. The median income of 2001 for the lowest 20% of families was $39,900 while the median income for the highest 10% of families was $169,600. Yet the Bush Administration is pushing through14 Congress a tax cut plan which will mainly benefit the high income families. Some economists predict that the implementation of the Bush tax cut plan will exacerbate15the polarization16in American society.

With this in mind, we will find Galbraith’s essay still highly relevant and his insight

10

（美国）联邦储备系统 11

的；中间的；居中的；当中的; 中线的; 中(位)数的, 中值的 12

净财产 13

(价格等)暴涨，突升；猛增Oil prices jumped in the past year.在过去一年中，石油价格猛涨。The steel output is jumping.钢产量正在猛增。 14

使(某人或某事)被通过，使(提案等)获得通过:We shall need all the votes we can get to push the new law through.我们需要我们所能得到的所有选票，才好使新的法律得以通过。 15

[ek'sæsəbeit; iɡz-] To increase the severity, violence, or bitterness of; aggravate 加重(病情、痛苦、烦恼等)，使(病、痛)恶化(或加剧)，使(痛苦等)更甚(或加深)： to exacerbate ill feeling使恶感加深to exacerbate relations between employers and workers使雇主与工人之间关系恶化 16

A concentration, as of groups, forces, or interests, about two conflicting or contrasting positions.两极分化If the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer, polarization will emerge. The socialist system must and can avoid polarization. 如果富的愈来愈富，穷的愈来愈穷，两极分化就会产生，而社会主义制度就应该而且能够避免两极分化.

admirable. His warning is still valid for the Bush Administration17.

Galbraith’s writing is noted for its lucidity18and persuasiveness. This is clearly evident in the current essay. His skillful employment of irony, from humorous irony to bitter satire, provides excellent examples for careful study.

Text

1. I would like to reflect on19 one of the oldest of human exercises, the process by which over the years, and indeed over the centuries, we have undertaken to get the poor off our conscience.20

2. Rich and poor have lived together, always uncomfortably and sometimes perilously, since the beginning of time.21 Plutarch was led to say22: “An imbalance

17

The term \"Bush administration\" is most commonly associated with one of two presidents of the United States with the name Bush: • George H. W. Bush#Presidency (19--1993), the Executive Branch under the 41st president of the United States, 19--1993

• Presidency of George W. Bush, the Executive Branch under the 43rd president of the United States, 2001--2009 18

(思想、风格等的)明晰，明白，清楚; 洞察力 19

1. 反省We should often reflect on our past mistakes.我们应当经常反省自己过去的错误。2. 考虑；仔细想： You have to reflect on how to answer his questions before you get to his house.在你到达他家之前你必须考虑好如何回答他提出的问题。Please reflect upon what I have told you.请你仔细想想我对你讲的话。 20

我想好好反思一下人类最古老的一项活动：在这一业已持续了许多年，实际上是好几百年的活动过程中，人们一直力图抹除自己良心上对穷人的负疚感。（努力使自己的良心不因穷人的存在而过意不去）。 21

自古以来富人与穷人并存于世，他们彼此间总感到不快，有时还感到危

between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of republics.” And the problems that arise from the continuing co-existence of affluence and poverty--and particularly the process by which good fortune is justified in the presence of the ill fortune of others--have been an intellectual preoccupation for centuries.23 They continue to be so in our own time.

3. One begins with the solution proposed in the Bible: the poor suffer in this world but are wonderfully rewarded in the next. Their poverty is a temporary misfortune; if they are poor and also meek they eventually will inherit the earth. This is, in some ways, an admirable solution. It allows the rich to enjoy their wealth while envying the poor their future fortune.

4. Much, much later, in the twenty or thirty years following the publication in 1776 of

The Wealth of Nations--the late dawn of the Industrial Revolution in Britain--the

problem and its solution began to take on24 their modern form25. Jeremy Bentham, a near contemporary of Adam Smith, came up with the formula26that for perhaps fifty years was extraordinarily influential in British and, to some degree, American thought.

险重重。 22

This implies that it was the actual existence of the rich and poor or the logic of his analysis that made him come to such a conclusion. 23

持续共存所引发的问题，尤其是在证明你贫我富是合理的过程中所产生的问题, 千百年来智者们一直在为之苦苦追寻破解之道。 24

具有(某种性质、特征等) 25

过了很久，即在1776年《国富论》发表之后二三十年里--英国工业初期的末期，不均的问题及其解决办法开始具有了现代的形式。 26

A method of doing or treating something that relies on an established, uncontroversial model or approach准则，方案：依据惯用的、无争议的模式或方法而采取的对某些事情的做法或处理方式a new situation comedy that simply uses an old formula.只沿用旧方案的新系列幽默剧

This was utilitarianism. “By the principle of utility,” Bentham said in 17, “is meant the principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question.27” Virtue28 is, indeed must be, self-centered. While there were people with great good fortune and many more with great ill fortune, the social problem was solved as long as, again in Bentham’s words, there was “the greatest good for the greatest number.” 29Society did its best for the largest possible number of people; one accepted that the result might be sadly unpleasant for the many whose happiness was not served.30

5. In the 1830s a new formula, influential in no slight degree to this day, became available for getting the poor off the public conscience. This is associated with the names of David Ricardo, a stockbroker, and Thomas Robert Malthus, a divine. The essentials31are familiar: the poverty of the poor was the fault of the poor. And it was so because it was a product of their excessive fecundity: their grievously uncontrolled lust caused them to breed up to the full limits of the available subsistence.32

6. This was Malthusianism. Poverty being caused in the bed meant that the rich were not responsible for either its creation or its amelioration. However, Malthus

27

根据功利原则，是否赞成任何行动取决于它可能增加还是减少与之相关的人的幸福。 28

the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong 29

尽管有些人极为富有而更多的人极度贫困，然而，再次用边沁的话来说，只要使“最大多数的人利益最大化”，就能解决这个社会问题。 30

社会竭力为尽可能多的人服务；然而人们必须接受这样一个可能的结果：许多人因得不到幸福而伤心不快。 31

要素，要点 32

令人痛心疾首的是，他们毫无节制的性欲使他们过度生育，达到了其可资利用的生活物质的极限。

was himself not without a certain feeling of responsibility: he urged33that the marriage ceremony contain a warning against undue and irresponsible sexual intercourse -- a warning, it is fair to say, that has not been accepted as a fully effective method of birth control. In more recent times, Ronald Reagan has said that the best form of population control emerges from the market. (Couples in love should repair to34 R. H. Macy’s35, not their bedrooms.36) Malthus, it must be said, was at least as relevant.

7. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a new form of denial achieved great influence, especially in the United States. The new doctrine, associated with the name of Herbert Spencer37, was Social Darwinism. In economic life, as in biological development, the overriding rule was survival of the fittest. That phrase--“survival of the fittest”--came, in fact, not from Charles Darwin but from Spencer, and expressed his view of economic life. The elimination of the poor is nature’s way of improving the race. The weak and unfortunate being extruded38, the quality of the human family is thus strengthened.

8. One of the most notable American spokespersons of Social Darwinism was John

33

To advocate earnestly the doing, consideration, or approval of; press for:极力主张，强烈要求 34

repair to到…去（特指成群地去或经常去） 35

梅西百货公司(Macy's) 是美国的高档百货商店，主要经营服装、鞋帽和家庭装饰品，以优质的服务赢得美誉。其公司规模虽然不是很大，但在美国和世界有很高的知名度。 36

一对对恩爱夫妻应常常光顾梅西百货而不是他们的卧室。 37

Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English

philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. 38

驱逐，逐出，赶出，撵走；排出，把…排除出去The offender was extruded.违者被除名了。

D. Rockefeller39--the first Rockefeller--who said in a famous speech: “The American Beauty40 rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it.41 And so it is in economic life. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.”

9. In the course of the present century, however, Social Darwinism came to be considered a bit too cruel. It declined in42 popularity, and references to it acquired a condemnatory tone. We passed on to the more amorphous43denial of poverty associated with Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. They held that public assistance44 to the poor interfered with the effective operation of the economic system--that such assistance was inconsistent with the economic design that had come to serve most people very well. The notion that there is something economically damaging about helping the poor remains with us to this day as one of the ways by which we get them off our conscience.

10. With the Roosevelt revolution, a specific responsibility was assumed by the government for the least fortunate people in the republic. Roosevelt and the presidents

39

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1839–1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company and billionaire 40

A type of rose bearing large, long-stemmed purplish-red flowers.月月红，美国红蔷薇：一种玫瑰，生有长茎的紫红色大花 41

美国红蔷薇之所以能够被培育得芬芳艳丽令观者叫绝，是因为在早期就将生长在其周围的蓓蕾掐掉了。 42

decline in在…方面逐渐衰弱(或败落) He declines in reputation.他声誉日低。 43

含糊的，模糊的；不明确的；无定形的，难以归类的I really can't

understand his amorphous ideas.我真的弄不懂他那些乱七八糟的想法。 44

公共援助；援助；官方援助；公众补助：发给无家可归者、财政极其困难的人、老年人或灾区居民的补助，比如金钱或食物等救济；援助

who followed him accepted a substantial45measure46of responsibility for the old through Social Security, for the unemployed through unemployment insurance, for the unemployable and the handicapped through direct relief, and for the sick through Medicare47and Medicaid48. This was a truly great change, and for a time, the age-old tendency to avoid thinking about the poor gave way to the feeling that we didn’t need to try--that we were, indeed, doing something about them.

11. In recent years, however, it has become clear that the search for a way of getting the poor off our conscience was not at an end; it was only suspended. And so we are now again engaged in this search in a highly energetic way. It has again become a major philosophical, literary, and rhetorical preoccupation49, and an economically not unrewarding enterprise.

12. Of the four, maybe five, current designs we have to get the poor off our conscience, the first proceeds from the inescapable fact that most of the things that must be done on behalf of the poor must be done in one way or another by the government. It is then argued that the government is inherently incompetent, except as regards weapons design and procurement and the overall management of the Pentagon. Being incompetent and ineffective, it must not be asked to succor the poor; it will only

45

Considerable in importance, value, degree, amount, or extent有重大价值的：重要的、有价值的或内容充实的won by a substantial margin.大胜 46

Extent or degree:范围，程度：The problem was in large measure caused by his carelessness.这个问题在很大程度上是由他的粗心造成的 47

医疗保障方案：美国社会保障局实施的一项方案，向医院和医生支付为65岁以上的人士提供医疗服务所需的费用 48

医疗补助计划：美国的一项由国家和联邦联合拨款方案，替负担不起自己医疗费用的人向医院和医生支付费用 49

使人全神贯注的事；首先要做的事；急务

louse50 things up or make things worse.

13. The allegation51of government incompetence is associated in our time with the general condemnation of the bureaucrat—again excluding those associated with national defense. The only form of discrimination that is still permissible—that is, still officially encouraged in the United States today— is discrimination against people who work for the federal government, especially on social welfare activities. We have great corporate bureaucracies replete52 with corporate bureaucrats, but they are good; only public bureaucracy and government servants53 are bad. In fact we have in the United States an extraordinarily good public service54—one made up of talented and dedicated people who are overwhelmingly honest and only rarely given to55 overpaying for monkey wrenches, flashlights, coffee makers, and toilet seats. (When these aberrations56 have occurred they have, oddly enough57, all been in the

50

To bungle搞乱，弄坏loused the project 搅坏这个工程; louse up a deal搞坏一桩交易 51

(无证据或有待证实的)陈述；说法；无根据的断言; 主观臆测：在没有证据的情况下对某事所下的判断The newspaper's charges of official wrongdoing were mere allegations.报纸对官方不良行为的指摘不过是主观臆测而已 52

replete（常与with连用）充满的；满的；饱满的a stream replete with trout 那条溪流里多鳟鱼； an apartment replete with Empire furniture.充满帝王风格家具的房间 53

servants官吏; 雇员; 公务员, 公仆, 公职人员 54

公益服务：尤指在系统的行政机构内的职务/尤指由非盈利性组织进行的为公众的利益而实施的服务; 公益事业：为公众提供水或电等基本生活用品或通讯或交通等服务的事业 55

given to 惯于… 56

离开正路，脱离常轨，越轨失常，偏差，误差，偏离；过失；犯规 57

oddly enough奇怪得很，够奇怪的，说来也奇怪，说来稀奇 [用作插入语]

Pentagon.) We have nearly abolished poverty among the old, greatly democratized health care, assured minorities of their civil rights, and vastly enhanced educational opportunity. All this would seem a considerable achievement for incompetent and otherwise ineffective people. We must recognize58that the present condemnation of government and government administration59is really part of the continuing design for avoiding responsibility for the poor.

14. The second design in this great centuries-old60 tradition is to argue that any form of public help to the poor only hurts the poor. It destroys morale61. It seduces people away from gainful employment. It breaks up marriages, since women can seek welfare62for themselves and their children once they are without husbands.

15. There is no proof of this--none, certainly, that compares that damage with the damage that would be inflicted by the loss of public assistance. Still, the case is made—and believed63—that there is something gravely damaging about aid to the

58

认识到; 意识到 59

()行政机关，管理部门；(总统制国家的)，一位总统任内的；英国首相及其内阁；[the A-]美国(总统及其内阁); 管理；经营；(尤指对、协会等事务的)支配，掌管 60

悠久的 61

道德，品行，士气 62

Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to

people in need.福利救济：给贫困者的金钱或其它形式的援助，尤指提供的; 救济金; on welfare接受福利救济的 63

In spite of the fact that there is no proof to such argument, the argument has been put forth and accepted by many. Case: a set of arguments supporting a particular action, cause, etc.; a statement of facts and reasons used to support an argument

unfortunate. This is perhaps our most highly influential piece of fiction.

16. The third, and closely related, design for relieving65 ourselves of responsibility for the poor is the argument that public-assistance measures have an adverse effect on incentive66. They transfer income from the diligent to the idle and feckless67, thus reducing the effort of the diligent and encouraging the idleness of the idle. The modern manifestation68of this is supply-side69economics. Supply-side economics holds that the rich in the United States have not been working70because they have too little income. So, by taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich, we increase effort and stimulate the economy. Can we really believe that any considerable number of the poor prefer welfare71to a good job? Or that business people—corporate executives, the key figures

谎言 65

relieve of解除；消除；减轻…之…; 释去负担 66

Something, such as the fear of punishment or the expectation of reward, that induces action or motivates effort.刺激; 诱因; 动机：引起行动或激发努力的某事，比如对惩罚的恐惧或对奖励的期望 67

Careless and irresponsible粗心的，不负责任的 68

One of the forms in which someone or something, such as a person, a divine being, or an idea, is revealed.表现形式：表明某人或某事物，如人、神圣事物或观点的一种形式 69

供应经济学的：认为通过减税而增加投资资金能够在整个经济体系中增加生产力、经济活动及收入的经济理论的，与此经济理论有关的或属于此经济理论的; 通过减税而刺激生产和投资的; supply-side economics: a school of economic thought that emphasizes the

importance to a strong economy of policies that remove impediments to supply 供应学派经济学 70

When you work, you spend time and effort doing a task that needs to be done or trying to achieve something. 努力从事 71

Welfare is money that is paid by the government to people who are unemployed, poor, or sick. 社会保障金; 救济金

in our time—are idling away their hours because of the insufficiency of their pay? This is a scandalous charge against the American businessperson, notably72a hard worker. Belief can be the servant of truth—but even more of convenience.73

17. The fourth design for getting the poor off our conscience is to point to the presumed adverse effect on freedom of taking responsibility for them. Freedom consists of the right to spend a maximum of one’s money by one’s own choice, and to see a minimum taken and spent by the government. (Again, expenditure on national defense is excepted.) In the enduring words of Professor Milton Friedman, people must be “free to choose.”

18. This is possibly the most transparent of all of the designs: No mention is ordinarily made of the relation of income to the freedom of the poor. (Professor Friedman is here an exception; through the negative income tax74, he would assure everyone a basic income.) There is, we can surely agree, no form of oppression that is quite so great, no constriction75on thought and effort quite so comprehensive, as that which comes from having no money at all. Though we hear much about the limitation on the freedom of the affluent when their income is reduced through taxes, we hear nothing of the extraordinary enhancement of the freedom of the poor from having some money of their own to spend. Yet the loss of freedom from taxation to the rich is a small thing as compared with the gain in freedom from providing some income to the

72

in a way worthy of being noted; in a way that is striking or remarkable 73

Belief can be useful in the search for truth. But more often than not it is accepted because it is convenient and self-serving. 74

<美>逆所得税,最低收入补贴(美国联邦对低收入者或家庭的一种补助) 75

A feeling of tightness or pressure压抑感，压迫感Fear caused a sudden constriction in my chest.恐惧使我胸部突然感到有点压抑

impoverished. Freedom we rightly cherish. Cherishing it, we should not use it as a cover76for denying freedom to those in need.

19. Finally, when all else fails, we resort to simple psychological denial. This is a psychic tendency that in various manifestations is common to77 us all. It causes us to avoid thinking about death. It causes a great many people to avoid thought of the arms race and the consequent rush toward a highly probable extinction. By the same process of psychological denial, we decline to think of the poor. Whether they be in Ethiopia78, the South Bronx79, or even in such an Elysium80as Los Angeles, we resolve to keep them off81 our minds. Think, we are often advised, of something pleasant.

20. These are the modern designs by which we escape concern for the poor. All, save perhaps the last, are in great inventive82descent from Bentham, Malthus, and Spencer. Ronald Reagan and his colleagues are clearly in a notable tradition—at the end of a long history of effort to escape responsibility for one’s fellow beings. So are the philosophers now celebrated in Washington: George Gilder, a greatly favored figure of the recent past, who tells to much applause that the poor must have the cruel spur of their own suffering to ensure effort; Charles Murray, who, to greater cheers, contemplates83 “scrapping84the entire federal welfare and income-support structure

76

借口 77

be common to为...所共有 78

[,i:θi'əupiə] 79

The South Bronx is part of New York's 16th Congressional District, one of the five poorest Congressional Districts in the United States. 80

[i'liziəm] 极乐世界，天堂；至福之境 81

keep off ：To stay away from躲开，避开 82

发明的；有发明才能的；独出心裁的；有创造力的 83

consider as a possibility 84

废弃，废止to scrap a decision放弃一项决定

for working and aged persons, including A.F.D.C.85, Medicaid, food stamps86, unemployment insurance, Workers’ Compensation

87

, subsidized housing

88

,

disability insurance, and,” he adds, “the rest. Cut the knot90, for there is no way to untie it.” By a triage91, the worthy would be selected to survive; the loss of the rest is the penalty we should pay. Murray is the voice of Spencer in our time; he is enjoying, as indicated, unparalleled92 popularity in high Washington circles.

21. Compassion, along with the associated93public effort, is the least comfortable, the least convenient, course94of behavior and action in our time. But it remains the only one that is compatible with a totally civilized life. Also, it is, in the end, the most truly conservative course. There is no paradox here. Civil discontent and its consequences do not come from contented people—an obvious point. To the extent95 to which we can make contentment as nearly universal as possible, we will preserve and enlarge the

85

Aid to Families with Dependent Children对有未成年子女家庭的补助 86

食品券，粮票(发给或以低价卖给低收入者以维持最低生活标准)[亦称作 food coupon] 87

工人（失业）补助金 88

住房补贴

伤残保险 90

快刀斩乱麻，采取果断行动解决问题 91

tri:'ɑ:ʒ治疗类选法(对战场或灾难的伤病者进行分类，以便为治疗更多的人而确定先后次序)；伤病员鉴别分类；】(对要求住院治疗的)病人筛选(鉴别)分类；优先分配：一种将有限的物资，如食物，分配给那些能从中获取最大收益的人的制度 92

无比的,无双的;空前的 93

联合的, 关联的 94

A mode of action or behavior行为，做法：行动或行为的方针followed the best course and invested her money.依照最佳的投资方式并进行投资 95

到…的程度

social and political tranquility for which conservatives, above all, should yearn.

This essay originally appeared in Harper’s Magazine, November, 1985.